Demon on Puppet Strings
by ragnorokrising
Summary: Abused and beaten, Naruto learns the Puppet Technique in Suna from some scrolls left by Sasori. He becomes feared by Konoha, but when the Sandaime dies, he wishes to follow in the man's footsteps. Will teh result be euphoric, or disasterous?
1. Silver Sand

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

**--**

**Chapter One: Silver Sand**

Naruto didn't remember the trip through the desert, or when he got separated from the ANBU and the Hokage, but somehow he had arrived in a strange alley. He ran a hand over the wall, and found an indention. He squinted and saw the faded red paint in the shape of scorpion. Naruto pushed on it, and the ground beneath him fell away.

He was sent shooting down a slide, and landed on an old mattress in a large room, which quickly filled with dust. Naruto started coughing violently, and when he stopped, the dust had settled revealing the room. Hanging on the walls were wooden body parts, weapons, clothing, scrolls and even some bags full of hair. Naruto was wondering what this room was, when an image of a teenager popped up from a seal.

He was five foot six, with short, spiky red hair, dressed in a black cloak with red clouds on it. "Attention whoever found this room. My name is Sasori of the Red Sand. I am the greatest puppeteer of all time. My prowess is unlimited. My age is unending. Within this room you will find parts for a puppet, as well as the scrolls containing all of my knowledge up to this point. I leave this for Suna. As one last mocking acting on its people."

The image flickered away, and Naruto began to search through the scrolls. He pulled one down that said _Beginnings of Puppetry _on it and opened it up. Inside were several diagrams, showing how to make something called chakra strings. Naruto turned his head to the side in confusion. "What the crap is chakra?"

He went searching through the scrolls until he found one that explained chakra to him. Then he returned back to the first scroll. He followed the instructions and reached out towards a puppet arm on the wall. It twitched and started to lift up off its hooks, but clattered back into place. Naruto clenched his teeth and tried again.

For the next week, Naruto trained with the chakra strings. Eventually he was able to easily move the arm with only one finger. At the end of the week, he was spinning it around the room, when a bat flew down from the ceiling. There was a click and a blade flew out of the arm and into the bat, pinning it to the wall.

Naruto smiled and pulled the arm back. He opened up the scroll again, and smiled at the title of the next section, _Making Your Own Puppet_, and began to read. It took him three hours to read the whole section, because even though he was seven he couldn't read very well. But once he was finished, he quickly found all the tools he would need.

He examined the tools carefully. He had three screw drivers, four swords, a torso, a head, some hair, a blow torch, a zanbato, a device to fire senbon, kunai and shuriken, a tail, a blow torch, some poison, oil, and a demon windmill shuriken. He began to assemble the pieces using the instructions inside Sasori's scroll.

It took another month to get it down, but when it was done, the puppet had the body of a man about to be in his twenties, with spiky silver hair. The eyes were red with fox pupils, and a mouth full of fangs. The jaw could open up large enough for shuriken, senbon or kunai to be fired out. It was dressed in a tattered back cloak, and had the large zanbato strapped to his back. The inside of his left arm was filled with the oil, with the blow torch built into the wrist. The right arm was could shoot out poison. The demon windmill shuriken and the katana were strapped to his back. The tail was covered in more silver hair, and could split into four pieces that fired weapons.

Naruto examined the puppet. He smiled, putting his hands on his hips, and said, "I'll name you Quick Silver." With a few finger movements, he began to test out the puppet. Once he was satisfied that everything was in order, he grabbed a large backpack from the corner. He began stuffing all the remaining tools and parts and scrolls into the bag.

Naruto moved his fingers in a complex pattern and the back of Quick Silver opened up revealing a hollow shell. Naruto climbed in and the back closed up. Quick Silver pushed the bag in with Naruto and they took off. He climbed up the chute like a spider and shot out of the hole and into the air. Quick Silver landed on the roof of the building by the chute. Instantly, he was surrounded by the Konoha ANBU, the two Kages, and several Suna ninja.

"Oh calm down Sarutobi. It's just a puppet." They started to leave, when the back split open and out popped Naruto.

"Hey old man how's it going?"

"Naruto!" the Hokage shot forward and wrapped Naruto in a bear hug. "Where have you been? And whose puppet is this?"

"I found this old cave with a bunch of scrolls and parts in it and made this puppet. Watch this."

Quick Silver shot up into the air and did a flip. As it did, the flames ignited, turning the puppet into a spinning flame wheel. Naruto jerked his fingers, and the flames exploded outward. Quick Silver landed next to him and clicked a few times before becoming still. All the ninjas stared in shock as Naruto moved the puppet around in complex patterns.

"Well Sarutobi, it seems you have a natural puppeteer here." The man took off his hat, revealing a kind face with a burr of dark brown hair. Suddenly he straightened up, and his faced hardened. "What is it you want Gaara?"

"I was just wondering what all the commotion was." Said a tiny voice. A small boy appeared on a cloud of sand, dressed in a light brown shirt and pale blue pants. He had a bright crop of red hair and a blue scarf.

"Sarutobi, Konoha-nin, this is my son, Gaara. He is our village's Jinchuuriki."

The Hokage gasped. "You turned your own son into a Jinchuuriki?!"

"Did your fourth Hokage not do the same?!" the Kazekage yelled back.

The Hokage glared at him. "That is an isolated incident." He said. He threw a glance at Naruto. The Kazekage calmed down and turned towards Gaara, only to find him and Naruto playing together.

"They must know they are a sort of family." One of the other ninja pointed out. Sarutobi began to stroke his beard.

"You don't seem to like your son."

"Truthfully, we're all afraid he'll lose control one day and kill us."

"Well, I could take him off your hands. Maybe one day fix his seal."

The Kazekage considered it. Then he saw Gaara lift a gleeful Naruto into the air with a burst of sand.

"Well Sarutobi, I'll trade you Gaara for supplies. We're running low on medical herbs and tobacco."

"You got yourself a deal Lord Kazekage."

(Time Skip)

Gaara stared back at the gates of Suna as they slowly grew smaller and smaller. The Kazekage's eyes bore through him, even at that distance, but there was something inside them. Anger? Rage? Disappointment? Or could it be…regret?"

Gaara turned away and began to talk to Naruto.

An ANBU in a weasel mask appeared and whispered to the Hokage. The old man nodded and turned to the two smiling boys playing with each other.

"Naruto, could you and Gaara get inside your puppet for a while? We have to rush back to Konoha for urgent business."

Naruto pulled back his fingers and Quick Silver exploded up from beneath the sand. It landed on the ground and Gaara quickly pulled the sand from the joints. The back opened up and they climbed in. As soon as the back closed, the puppet was picked up by someone who began running at incredible speeds down through the desert.

(Time Skip)

Two hours later, Sarutobi kicked down the door of the council room. He glared at an older man, whose body was wrapped in bandages. The man had a shocked look on his face as Sarutobi swiped a bowl full of paper from him. On the paper were names and a title explaining that the vote was for a new Hokage.

"Lord Hokage." Said a woman in a red kimono with bright pink hair. "We thought you were dead."

"Sit down Haruno!" he growled. The woman sat back down as Sarutobi walked back and forth. "An assassin was discovered and killed by my ANBU escort. He was sent to kill Naruto, and if possible me, and then to disappear if both were successful. He wouldn't tell us who he was hired by. But that doesn't matter." He stopped and slammed his fist into the solid oak desk, shattering it beneath his fist. "I can't prove that someone from this council was responsible, but if it was, be warned. Next time, I'll have you all executed, guilty or not."

He disappeared out the door, and the council members began to talk angrily among themselves.

Meanwhile, Gaara and Naruto were playing around the village. Villagers shied away when they saw the puppet being controlled by the blond haired boy, and when Gaara used his sand to stop a rotten fruit from hitting them, rumors began to fly.

Eventually, as Gaara and Naruto approached the ninja academy, a group of adult civilians appeared around them.

"So, a pair of demons wants to hurt our children?" one of them said. "I don't think so." The crowd yelled in agreement and jumped on them. Naruto and Gaara were so surprised they couldn't react. But they didn't have to. The sand exploded out from Gaara's body and gourd and wrapped around them protectively. Fists pounded on the shell of sand to no avail. Naruto took a deep breath and connected his chakra strings to the weapons on Quick silver.

The top opened up and the puppet explode into the air. The dome's top closed, and poison spewed from the puppet. As the villagers choked, Quick Silver ignited the poison and it exploded. The explosion drew most of the teachers and some surrounding ninja to the area. As the puppet was pulled back into the dome, a teacher with a scar across his face named Iruka stepped forward.

"Naruto, is that you?"

The dome fell apart and the blonde shot forward and wrapped his arms around the man's waist.

"Iruka-sensei!"

The man laughed and returned the hug. Naruto stepped back and with a huge smile said, "Iruka-sensei, check out my cool new puppet. I made it myself."

Quick Silver jumped over Naruto and landed between him and Iruka. The puppet drew its blade and Naruto had it show Iruka some of its abilities. Students began to come out to see what the commission was. Ninja stared in amazement as this young boy demonstrated one of Suna's greatest techniques.

"Die demon scum!" someone yelled. Three kunai, with exploding notes tied to them, soared through the air. Gaara's sand rushed forward in a wave and engulfed them in a ball of sand. The sphere expanded slightly as they detonated, but other than that nothing happened. The surprise rose as Gaara formed the sand into a gourd behind his back.

The Hokage landed next to Naruto as a group of ANBU carried away a Chuunin. "Ah, this is where you two are. Showing off are we?"

Naruto smiled at Gaara, and the redhead made an attempt to smile back.

"Lord Hokage?" Iruka asked.

"Yes Iruka, how may I help you?"

"I'm guessing Naruto and his friend are going to be enrolled into the academy?"

The Hokage laughed loudly, making smiles spread over most of the other ninjas faces. "Of course. You know I hate to waste talent. That and the fact Naruto would pester me to death all day if he didn't have something to do."

--

Well that's the first chapter guys. I hope you all enjoy it.


	2. SelfDestructive Emotion

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

**--**

**Chapter Two: Self-Destructive Emotions**

Naruto and Gaara had lived together in a three room apartment for two years now. Both of them were now ten years old. The apartment room had a moderately good television, a rack of DVD's, a good couch and table, a microwave, a large refrigerator and a bed in Naruto's room. Puppet parts decorated the walls, with containers full of sand for Gaara to use. A book shelf was full and organized with the scrolls from Sasori's room.

Before Naruto had met Gaara, when he was still expelled from the ninja academy, no one would sell him anything, or give him bad products for three times the price. When he started coming into the stores with Gaara, they didn't dare threaten him, and began to sell him things for the real price.

Suddenly, in Naruto's room, the blonde shot up in bed, gasping as the nightmare ended. Every night for the past two years, Naruto dreamed of the room. He dreamed of hunting down the bats and rats and killing and cooking them. He remembered the cold nights, and he remembered how he was forced to use the bathroom simply in a corner.

Gaara closed the book he was reading. "Was it any better this time?"

"No, not really, but it could have been worse." He said as he got up. The dresser opened up and Naruto's clothes floated up and out over to him. He climbed into them quickly walked into the main room. "No academy today right?"

"Nope, just you and me for the day." Naruto grunted and plopped down on the couch, pulling the final scroll on puppets out of the shelf.

"Gaara, come look at this title." Naruto said. He held it up for the red head to read.

"_Making Human Puppets._ Who would ever think of making a puppet out of a human?"

"I don't know, but it looks kinda cool." Naruto said as he opened it up. His eyes scanned the scroll slowly and carefully. His face shifted into several stages of wonder and disgust as he read on.

"Well, what's it say?"

Naruto looked up at Gaara over the scroll and began to read aloud. "'Begin by slicing open the intended puppet's chest. Remove the targets rib cage and very carefully remove and preserve the organs, taking great care not to damage the chakra network. Next─'"

"Um, Naruto," injected Gaara, "that is more than I need to know. And my hobby use to be crushing vermin infested animals with my sand."

Naruto smiled and continued reading. All day he read the scroll, until he had it completely memorized the contents. He put the scroll back in its place and sealed up the book shelf. Next he sealed up all the appliances, the TV, the furniture, the puppet parts, sand, and anything the villagers could destroy in a fit of rage.

"What are you doing Naruto?" Gaara asked as Naruto threw the scroll to him and the sand put it inside the gourd.

"It's October ninth today, and tomorrow the villagers will get drunk. Naturally they'll try to kill me, to no avail naturally. Anyways, I'm going to sleep. Goodnight Gaara." He went into his room and fell onto his bed, instantly falling asleep.

Gaara pulled the scroll back out of his gourd and sealed all his belongings into it. He read a book until two o'clock in the morning, at which point he finished. He sealed the book away and left the building, heading to an all night book store eighteen blocks away.

Unknown to Gaara, a group of Chuunin were waiting outside the building with a mob of civilians. As soon as Gaara was two blocks away, they moved into the building, where the apartment residence met up with them. As they neared the apartment where Naruto was sleeping, they drew weapons and kicked down the door.

They dragged Naruto out of his bed before he could react. They began to attack him, stabbing and hacking into his body. Naruto screamed once, so loud that Gaara heard him and dropped the book he was considering buying.

(Within Naruto's Mind)

The blonde landed in a damp and dark sewer, filled with red lit hallways. He began to wonder for what felt like hours, until he came to a massive chamber. Pipes ran the length of the roof, into the massive gate on the other end of the chamber. It was held closed with nothing but a slip of paper. Naruto stepped forward and looked at the gate blankly.

Suddenly, two red eyes appeared and jumped forward. A massive fox slammed into the gate and his claws stopped half a centimeter from Naruto's face.

"**Ah, so the warden has arrived to visit his prisoner.**" The fox growled.

"Who are you?" Naruto said, the emotion absent from his voice.

"**FOOLISH BOY! I am the great Demon King, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine Tailed Fox!**"

"And I should care about that?" Naruto asked with the same voice.

The fox stared at Naruto in amazement.

"…**you don't care? Boy, I was sealed into you by the Fourth Hokage. I am the reason you are still alive today.**"

Naruto shrugged and turned around. He began to walk away from the gate as the water seemed to go up a few inches.

"**Boy, you are dying. And I am the only one who can save you.**"

"Fine. I'll die. And you'll go with me."

The fox growled and let loose with a mighty roar. A tidal wave of red energy flew through the gate and engulfed Naruto.

(Real World)

The group laughed as they watched Naruto's eyes go dull. Glass and blades stuck out of him, his skin was sliced up, and blood was pooling from a slit throat. They began to congratulate each other, when suddenly, a red energy engulfed the boy. The glass and blades exploded from his body, the skin knitted itself together, and he began to rise.

His eyes opened, his head snapped forward, and he roared, shaking the building. A chakra string closed the door and windows with a crash. Quick Silver fell from the ceiling and began to click as the hidden weapons began to activate. Naruto moved his pinky in simple movements and Quick Silver reacted. After two years, Naruto had become more skilled with the puppet, as well as made some modifications.

Now Quick Silver had nine tails that had two swords inside each, doused in poison. Naruto had bought a seal that caused a flame to appear when chakra passed through it. The oil was replaced with a more combustible gas, and poison bombs were loaded into it. A chain scythe now accompanied the zanbato, and the four katana now slid out of Quick Silver's shoulder at Naruto's command. At the tips of each finger were claws that injected a deadly poison that killed from the smallest scratch.

The zanbato and the chain scythe made quick work of the ninja. And the claws forced the civilians to fall to the ground and go into a frothing seizure. As the last civilian died, Gaara kicked open the door. Naruto examined each body until he found a living set of Chuunin, who Naruto recognized as the two who often did gate duty.

"Listen you two. My aim was off, and that's the only reason you are alive. But as long as I have you, do me a favor." The red chakra strings wrapped around their throats and lifted them off the ground. They began to claw at their throats as the air was cut off. "Go to the Hokage. Tell him to spread this message."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I am the Jinchuuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox. My power is unlimited, my age is ten, my knowledge is larger than most Chuunin, and I will become the greatest puppeteer in the ninja world." He flicked his wrist and the Chuunin flew through the windows.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Gaara asked. It was one of the few times real concern had over-taken him.

Naruto turned to him and looked at him with eyes void of any emotion. "Yes, I'm fine. Could you unseal everything and set up a dome of sand around the building? I have a lot of work to do." He said, looking around the room.

Gaara realized what Naruto was planning on doing and nodded. "Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, break into the hospital and steal as much embalming fluid and preservatives as possible. Bring me large pieces of wood, blank seal tags, if you can, some of the advanced seal scrolls and books in the Jounin library. A large tool box, some seeds, a blow torch, lots of ink, thousands of candles, matches, food, water, a generator, and tell Iruka-sensei I won't be back in the academy for a few months."

Gaara nodded and unsealed everything. He pulled the sand from the containers and a moment later all the light was blocked out. The red glow faded away from Naruto as he arranged the bodies and prepared what tools he had.

For three months, the massive dome of sand remained in place. Gaara could be seen exiting and entering, usually with a scroll containing supplies and homework in his hand. And one day, without warning, it fell and Gaara pulled the sand back into containers.

A civilian mob rushed the building that night. And instantly, puppets fell from the roof and rushed out the door, hundreds of them, wielding weapons and fire. The civilians were confused, and looked around for Naruto.

"Look, up there!" someone yelled. In the corner of the hallway were wooden hands that chakra strings extended from, covered in chakra storing, security, I.D. recognition, monitoring and alert seals. All over the compound hands like this controlled puppets.

The puppets quickly disposed of the mob and dragged the bodies inside. Naruto reappeared a month later, as silhouettes of puppets could be seen through the window.

Naruto returned to the academy, much to the surprise of the other students. He grew to the top of the class quickly. And every day, Iruka became more and more surprised by how changed the boy was.

One day, the Hokage appeared outside the building, only for the puppets to rush towards him. Suddenly, they stopped, and Naruto and Gaara appeared.

"Old man, how are you?" Naruto said blankly.

"I'm good Naruto. I see you've been… busy."

"Yes, I've almost mastered all the jutsu Sasori has left in the scrolls. And I'm working on a new attack puppet. What do you need?"

"Oh nothing I was just wondering how you were doing." As Naruto and the Hokage talked, a plan was being formulated across the village.

In a secret room inside the Uchiha compound, the clan was formulating a plan.

"I say we send a group of elites to destroy the boy and take his puppets. We can make an army and use them to help us in the coup." A council member piped up.

"Yes, that might work. But," said the Uchiha leader, Fugaku Uchiha, "the council hates him. We can have them send in a group of elite Uchiha, Hyuuga, and militia. Then we can find how he makes those human puppets and turn the militia and Hyuuga into our own personal defense."

"Father," said his son, Itachi, "why don't we try to befriend him?"

Fugaku shook his head back and forth. "He can't be reasoned with. He and that Gaara must be destroyed."

Itachi stood up and left as the plan was refined.

(Time Skip)

Two days later, Sarutobi entered the council room. He was surprised to see the large crystal viewing ball in the center of the room. The council members were all drinking tea or coffee.

"Ah, Lord Hokage!" Fugaku Uchiha said happily. "You're just in time for the show."

"Show? What show?" asked the Hokage.

"Well," said Sarutobi's old female teammate, "we have decided the two Jinchuuriki have become too hostile. So we have put together a force of elite Uchiha and Hyuuga and stationed the militia around the apartment where they live. They shall destroy the boy."

"YOU WHAT!?"

"Come to think of it," said Hiashi Hyuuga, "they should be arriving just about now."

The crystal ball lit up, revealing a scene.

(Scene Change)

Ten elites dressed in full battle armor and decked out in weapons flew through the house. While the Uchiha occupied any puppets they met, the Hyuuga shut down the chakra transferring hands. They hadn't known that hundreds of deadly traps were filling the house. Only their bloodlines had saved them. Poison gas and spike pits, axes and swords falling from the ceiling, and hundreds of others.

As they reached the top floor, sand flooded the floor. Gaara appeared on a cloud of sand, levitating above the floor as the sand engulfed them.

"Don't worry boys." He said. "It'll all be over soon."

Then the floor collapsed beneath them, plunging them down into the basement. Purple gas flooded the room, and they were dead in seconds. Gaara called his sand back up as Naruto snapped. The hands instantly reactivated, and the militia outside screamed as puppets slaughtered them.

"Old man, council members, I know you're watching." Naruto said. He and Gaara looked up at them, much to their amazement. "And thanks for the new bloodline puppets."

(Scene Change)

Sarutobi laughed at the shocked faces on the councils face.

"I tried to warn you. He's strong. And with Gaara on his side, he is invincible." Sarutobi sat down and smiled as the council started to yell.

(Scene Change)

Naruto dragged a body, Quick Silver took two, and Gaara levitated three of the corpses to the Hokage Tower. They walked past the shocked ninja and receptionist and calmly opened the door. They threw the bodies on the floor and began to leave.

"Demons!" Fugaku Uchiha yelled, "What have you done with Jinji and Hoshimaru?!"

"And what about Senna and Rotaru?!" yelled Hiashi Hyuuga.

"Senna and Hoshimaru are the girls I presume?" Naruto asked calmly.

"Yes, they are!" yelled Fugaku. "And we want them back!"

"I'm sorry." Naruto said. "But you sent them after me. I would have kept these six to but I accidentally destroyed part of their chakra network, making them worthless." He and Gaara began to leave. However, Hiashi and Fugaku jumped forward. Instantly, Gaara's sand was swirling around them, ready to attack, and Quick Silver had his tails opened, the poison dripping from the eighteen blades.

The Sand began to swirl quicker and quicker, and suddenly engulfed them. The sand lifted off the ground and sent them flying out of the window. Naruto stayed up all that night, making new control hands, and working on the creation of his new puppets.

(Time Skip)

Three weeks later, Naruto appeared outside of his building. He went to the four buildings surrounding him. An hour later, all the residence were leaving, with bags full of money in hand and fearful expressions on their face. Naruto's security puppets moved out from the house, and began building a connection between those four buildings, and the original building. But this was just a distraction.

Gaara and Naruto quickly realized they would need more advanced seals and knowledge for Naruto to truly control his four new puppets. So they split up. Gaara went creeping through the Hokage Tower, searching for books on advance seals. Meanwhile, Naruto was sneaking into the Hyuuga Compound.

He was inside Quick Silver, in the ceiling, watching as the Hyuugas ran past in outrage. When the coast was clear, he dropped down in front of the library door and deactivated the simple traps protecting it. He snuck inside and closed the door quickly.

He turned around, only to find two girls staring at him in amazement. One was Hinata Hyuuga, a girl from his class, who had purple hair and kind lavender eyes. She was dressed in blue pants and an off-white jacket.

The girl next to her was her younger sister, Hanabi, he presumed. He often heard Hinata saying how Hanabi, who was only a year younger than her (yes, I made her older in this story) was already better than her at the Gentle Fist Style to Kiba Inuzuka. She was dressed in black pants skirt, with fishnet under a red shirt, and a deep red trench coat. Her hair was longer than Hinata's, going down to a foot beneath her shoulders, and she had a harder, more determined version of Hinata's Lavender eyes.

"Can we help you?" said Hanabi.

"No, I'm just here to take a few scrolls. I won't be long."

Hanabi stared at him. "You want to learn how to use Senna and Rotaru to their fullest abilities, right?"

"Yes. I figured it was obvious."

"Well, you won't be able to." Naruto stopped half way through reaching for a scroll.

"And why is that?"

"Because you can't use the Byakugan on a puppet."

Naruto pulled the scroll down and replaced it after reading the title. He continued on like this for the rest of the conversation.

"Actually, I can. With a very advance seal. And besides, I don't need it. I have to know every in and out of every part of a person's body to make my human puppets. So I don't need the Byakugan." He said as he sealed the last of the five scrolls he had found. "Which way to your armory?"

"Down the hall, five doors, on the left." She answered. "But it has a hundred times better booby traps than this room."

Naruto rolled his eyes and got inside Quick Silver. The puppet opened the door and flew down the hall, crawling over the dimly lit ceiling like a massive spider. He landed on the ground in front of the armory and took a look. The traps were very advance, some better then he could make at the moment, but there was one fatal flaw. A place where there was no trap. He snorted and pulled up the panel of wood in front of the door.

He crawled under the house and came up inside the armory. He whistled at all the weapons, made the pale white color of the Byakugan. Kunai, swords, daggers, spears, shuriken, senbon, scythes, armor, everything, the same pale white color. Naruto got out of his puppet and had it dash around the room, picking up every weapon and place it on the storage seal. In a puff of smoke, the weapons were gone.

Naruto got into the puppet and dove under the flooring, right as the door opened. He smiled as he heard Hiashi screaming in frustration. He crept out of the compound and began moving towards the real challenge: the Uchiha Compound.

(Scene Change)

Gaara spiraled through the Hokage Tower. He opened up the door to the Hokage's personal library. Inside, he found hundreds of scrolls, mostly jutsu scrolls. Lots of them, ranging from Genin to Kage level in ranking. Gaara grabbed a few of these to add to their collection. He began to look through them for a bit. Suddenly, he realized that this was only part of the Hokage's personal library. So where was the rest?

Gaara pushed the question away to pursue later. He scrolled through and found the book he was looking for. It was actually much to advance for Naruto and Gaara, but they would get around to it.

Without warning, the door flew open, and there stood the Hokage.

(Scene Change)

Naruto had a lot of trouble with the Uchiha Compound. Their guards were much smarter. He couldn't just sneak past them. So he fired senbon with paralysis poison on them into their necks. He sealed Quick Silver into a seal painted on his arm and rushed in. He jumped up onto the roof and went in through a panel that led into the attic. Several times, he had to defuse a booby trap or dodge a poisonous snake.

When he did eventually reach the library, he had to set off several smoke bombs around the edge of the compound, drawing every Uchiha's attention. The library was vacated by the Uchiha in it, and Naruto quickly jumped down and began to seal the scrolls away. Next he moved to the armory.

While the Hyuuga weapons were all white, the Uchiha weapons and armory were all red. All the armor was red and black, and the weapons were red handled with black blades, or black handled with red blades. He sealed them away and began to jump up when the door opened.

"Hey, what are you doing in here?"

(Scene Change)

Gaara started to move but the Hokage's hands flashed and he yelled "Earth Style: Earth Freezing Jutsu!" and his sand froze in place. Sarutobi shook his head. "Gaara, if you wanted to borrow some of the scrolls, you could have asked. I'm always willing to help you."

"Sorry Lord Hokage."

"Please," he said with a laugh, "call me Old Man. Naruto does and you might as well." Gaara started to smile, but it disappeared.

Sarutobi snapped and the sand unfroze. Gaara was wrapped in sand and took off. Sarutobi looked through the scrolls.

"Hey, you took my favorite jutsu scroll!"

(Scene Change)

A tall Uchiha with spiky black hair and dark onyx eyes dressed in ANBU armor came in through the door. In his hand was a black ANBU sword, and a fully developed Sharingan spun in his head. This was Itachi Uchiha, ANBU captain, Uchiha clan heir, expected to become the Hokage one day. And one of Naruto's closest friends.

"Oh, it's you Naruto. Getting weapons for your new puppets?"

"Yeah, and I got the scrolls already. Where would I find your ninja animals?"

"Right across the hall. Just don't take the third raven on the left top row. It's mine."

Naruto put the scrolls into his backpack and ran across the halls. "I wonder if human puppet creating works on animals."

(Time Skip)

Sarutobi lit up his pipe with a sigh. The paperwork was minimal today so he got done quickly. He began to reach for the new book he had just gotten in the mail from Jiraiya, his former student and famous 'adult fiction' writer, when the Hyuuga and Uchiha clan heads burst through the door.

"Lord Hokage, he broke into both of our compounds and took off with all our weapons and scrolls!" yelled Hiashi in outrage.

"And he stole several of our ninja animals and clan seals!" Fugaku slammed his hands on the desk.

"We want compensation now Lord Hokage." Hiashi intoned.

Sarutobi dropped the pipe on the desk and stood up. The clan heads backed up as the Hokage went around the desk.

"Mr. Hyuuga, Mr. Uchiha, I'm the Hokage. And Naruto Uzumaki is under my protection. You both have plenty of money to replace everything and besides, after all you've done to him he owns you nothing. Now leave!"

The clan heads stare at each other in amazement. They turned around and exited the tower. Sarutobi sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them up, the sun was low on the horizon. He sighed and started to close his eyes again.

"Tough day at the office old man?" someone suddenly said. Sarutobi opened his eyes and jumped up, a kunai drawn.

"Oh," he said, "it's just you Naruto." The blonde jumped down from the window sill, landing silently on the ground. "What can I help you with?"

"Oh, nothing, I just thought you might like to see my new bloodline puppets." He said as he wiped a bit of blood on a seal. Four lines of smoke spiraled out of his arm and formed into the four would-be assassins.

The male Hyuuga, Rotaru, was dressed in a set of battle armor that morphed into casual robes in a heartbeat. A seal linking the puppet's eye site to Naruto's was painted on his forehead. White kunai wrapped twice around his waist. A spear was strapped to his back.

The female Hyuuga, Senna, had the same outfit, only a three piece staff was wrapped around her waist, and a chain was wrapped across her shoulder and hip. The same seal was painted on her forehead.

The Uchiha female, Hoshimaru, was dressed in black and red robes. A whip was tied to her waist as well as two swords. The Sharingan swirled in her eye sockets. Her hands could fire a concentrated line of water that could slice through metal.

The male Uchiha, Jinji, was dressed in the same robes, with his Sharingan glowing brightly. A set of metal claws adorned his fingers. Seals were painted inside of him and Hoshimaru that copied everything their eyes saw. Painted on his hands and arms were seals of electricity. A long cable wrapped around a hook inside his chest with a long spike on the end that split into a four pronged grappling hook. A scythe was strapped to his back.

"Those are impressive Naruto. Just one question?"

"And what would that be?"

"Why did you take my seal books without asking?" he blinked in surprise as the wind blew in through the window that had just opened up. "Naruto! Get back here this instant or else!"

Across town, Naruto was activating a chakra shield to protect himself.


	3. Academic Treason

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

_**Hey guys, I need a good artist to do me a favor. Could someone do a fan art of Quick Silver for me?**_

**--**

**Chapter Three: Academic Treason**

Naruto didn't go back to the academy till the day of the exam two years later. He would have smiled with glee at their shocked faces if he still had his emotions. Everyone stared as he turned in a massive pile of homework. Iruka smiled at Naruto and put the work in a draw. "It's good to see you Naruto. How have you been?" he asked with a smile.

"I have been very well Iruka-sensei." He said. Without another word, he turned around and moved over to his seat between Shino Aburame, heir to a clan that used chakra eating bugs. Naruto nodded to him and he nodded back.

"Well," Iruka said, addressing the whole class, "it's time for the Genin Exam today. So today you will have to perform the three jutsu we have learned."

Naruto paled slightly. He raised his hand to get Iruka's attention. "Iruka-sensei, I forgot how to do the jutsu."

Every mouth in the room fell open. Iruka was the first to shake it off. "WHAT!? Naruto what have you been doing?"

"I've been working on a new, more advance set of puppets to use. I haven't had time to work on remedial jutsu even these pathetic excuse for ninja could do." He said, ignoring the shocked looks from around the room. "The only ninja with potential in this room are the clan heirs, Gaara, I, and Haruno."

"Naruto, the council says you have to know these fundamental jutsu. I don't get a say in the matter. Just try your best and hope you're lucky." Naruto clamped his jaw with a _clack_ that made the other students jump. He nodded and Iruka pulled out a sheet of paper with the names of every student in the class on it.

"Okay class," he said, making a few marks on the paper by the names, "we'll be going in alphabetical order. You'll go into the back room where Mizuki-sensei and I will be waiting. We will ask you to perform the three jutsu and if you can, you will automatically pass. While one of you is testing in the back room, the rest of you will work on a written exam. And after this, we will have a free style contest to determine the top member of the class. First up is Shino Aburame."

Mizuki passed around a paper, filled with trivial questions about history, geography, math, and jutsu. Naruto easily finished it, because most of it was in the scrolls left by Sasori, or in books he had read to find new puppets.

Every few minutes or so, a student would come out either with a headband displayed proudly, or with their head hung down in shame. He calmly waited for the time when his name would be called. He began to draw doodles of puppets he would like to create and eventually wiped it clean with a large eraser.

Finally, after the longest hour Naruto had ever endured, Iruka came out of the room. "All right, time for the final student, Naruto Uzumaki. Please, come into the back room."

Naruto stood up and walked into the room. It was small, with a desk on the back wall with two chairs behind it. On the desk was a single headband. Behind the chairs, where Iruka and Mizuki now sat, was a chalk board. Written on it was:

_Transformation_

_Substitution_

_Clone _

"Okay Naruto," Iruka began, "you have to perform each of these jutsu to a satisfactory level." He nodded and Naruto took a deep breath. Thinking of an image, he was surrounded in a cloud of smoke. A moment later, a tall boy of fifteen with hair as red as blood dressed in a black robe with red clouds appeared before them.

"Very good Naruto. And who is this person you transformed into?" Iruka asked as Naruto changed back to normal.

"That was the person I learned the Puppet Technique from, Sasori of the Red Sand." Iruka and Mizuki looked at each other in suspicion as Iruka checked off the _Transformation_ on the board.

Without warning, Mizuki threw a kunai at Naruto. In a flash of smoke, the table appeared in the air, and the kunai imbedded itself in the wood. Naruto caught the headband that was falling through the air and handed it to Mizuki. Iruka checked off the _Substitution_ box and smile slightly.

"Alright Naruto, all you have to do is make at least three clones, and you pass." Naruto inhaled and began to gather chakra, condensing the flow so the clones would appear correctly. And with a long row of poofs, eight real looking, and one pale, sickly looking Naruto, appeared. Iruka happily checked off the _Clone_ box and threw Naruto the headband.

The blonde tied the headband around his forehead and left the room. He sat back down next to Gaara, who handed him a scroll which held his puppets. Naruto quietly thanked him and sat down, opening up a book detailing all of the most dangerous ninja from each country, their skills, and their weapons and equipment.

"Well," Iruka said, passing out the tests, "grades were very good. The three highest scorers, from lowest to highest, are Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and, surprisingly, Naruto Uzumaki." The class stared at the blonde, who sighed silently and put the book away. "Now, if you would all please come out to the training yard, we can have our free style contest."

The students stood and began to move towards the door, when suddenly, Gaara wrapped Naruto and himself in a sphere and sent them hurtling through the door and through the hallway.

"Show off." Someone snorted. The class quickly moved to the training ground where they met up with Naruto and Gaara. Iruka brought out a chalk board with him and he began to right down the names of students, boys and girls, who would fight each other.

"This is a tournament style contest." Iruka explained as he drew lines connecting the names together, eliminating one each time, until it came down to one. "Winner will receive a very special prize, created by the Hokage himself."

A ripple ran through the crowd. The boys began to cockily boast about their skills. Naruto and Gaara listened intently to what they said. "Hey," a boy with a dog by him said, "can you two losers not do anything or something?" he said. The other boys began to laugh with him.

"Actually," Naruto said, hating the way the boy assumed he was better, "we're smart enough not to tell everyone exactly what skills we have and their descriptions. And I'm sure you've heard of us through the grape vine."

"Nope, never heard of you." He said, shrugging.

"Hey, you two!" Mizuki yelled, pointing at Naruto and the boy. "You're up first."

The boy jumped into the make shift ring the teachers had set up. "Well, I'm Kiba Inuzuka, and this is my partner Akamaru." The little puppy at his feet barked loudly. "And we're gonna kick your ass."

Naruto stepped calmly into the ring and pulled out two scrolls. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, master puppeteer of Konoha." With two explosions of smoke, Rotaru and Hoshimaru appeared. The students gasped as the Uchiha and Hyuuga puppet began to click as their internal mechanics were activated. "And you are much too cocky."

"BEGIN!" yelled Iruka. Instantly, Kiba threw a pill to Akamaru and the little dog caught it. Instantly, his fur turned deep red and he jumped on Kiba's back. The Inuzuka lowered his head into his interlaced hands. When he brought it back up, he had become more canine-like, with longer incisors and long claws. Akamaru exploded in a blast of smoke, becoming a clone of Kiba.

"Eat this Uzumaki! Double Piercing Fang!" Kiba yelled as he and Akamaru jumped forward, turning into two spiraling tornadoes. They twined in and out of each other, flying through the air towards Naruto. Rotaru landed in front of him and began to flash hand signs. A wall of rock exploded upwards and blacked the two tornadoes. However, the wall began to rock as the tornadoes drilled through.

Kiba grinned as the rock gave way. However, as soon as they busted through, Hoshimaru was waiting for them, with several long scythe blades protruding from her body. "Eight Trigrams: Rotation." Naruto said loud enough for everyone to hear. The puppet began to spin, forming a sphere of chakra around her. The scythe blades spun with her, making it difficult for Kiba to get to Naruto. With a flick of his hand, Naruto sent Hoshimaru after them.

The three swirling attacks chased after each other in a wild dance of power. Several times, Hoshimaru sliced through the wind of one of the two Inuzuka and cut them. The Kiba would stumble and quickly restart the attack. Thinking quickly, Naruto had Rotaru perform a few quick hand signs. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu." He said. The puppet expelled a stream of flames that ignited Hoshimaru's Eight Trigrams: Rotation.

Kiba and Akamaru focused solely on fleeing Hoshimaru, forgetting Rotaru. The Uchiha puppet flashed through hand signs and was pulled underground. A moment later, he shot up into the air from beneath Kiba and Akamaru with a tight mesh net that ensnared them instantly. Kiba and Akamaru both spun slightly, dizzy from their own jutsu.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka yelled. The class grumbled and clapped slightly as Naruto sealed up the puppets and went back to the sidelines with Gaara. He watched the rest of the fights with interest. Most of the clan heirs won, except for the Yamanaka Heir, who was yelling at Sakura Haruno. Gaara ended up facing said girl, knocking her out with a single wave of his hand that sent a blast of sand slamming into her.

In his next match, Naruto faced Shikamaru Nara, the heir to a clan that used shadows to control their enemies. Naruto summed out Senna this time. The Uchiha was able to anticipate his moves, thanks to the ocular seal on her eyes that linked her sight to Naruto's, giving him the ability to see through her eyes whenever he wanted to. She broke his hand seals and threw him out of the ring.

Gaara faced off against Hinata Hyuuga. The hesitant girl was swept up in a wave of sand and spin around and around until she puked. Gaara gently floated her through the window of the infirmary and released her onto the bed. After Gaara's match was Shino, versus Choji Akimichi. The Akimichi used his clan jutsu, turning himself into a massive ball, but the Aburame simply jumped into the air and released his bugs. Choji was sucked dry of his chakra in an instant.

Sasuke Uchiha fought against Shino in the next round. Shino kept his bugs inside of himself, making it easier for him and his partners to dodge the fireballs Sasuke was unleashing. Several times, Gaara's sand swept around the ring, blocking stray lines of flames that would have hit another student. And Sasuke kept up the jutsu, even as sweat began to pour down his body. He began to sway, and only a quick set of water style jutsu kept the school from catching on fire.

Iruka jumped in and stopped Sasuke. "Calm down Sasuke. You let your anger get the best of you and wasted all of your chakra. Not only that you almost hurt other people in the process. I'll make sure I tell your future sensei this. He hates that kind of attitude."

Sasuke was taken to the infirmary and put to sleep so his chakra would recharge quicker. Meanwhile, Naruto and Gaara were standing in the ring. People were smiling in excitement at seeing these two fight. They were best friends, but they were also the best in the class.

"BEGIN!" yelled Mizuki. In a big puff of smoke, Quick silver appeared and was moved into a battle position. Naruto had modified him some more. He now had four arms and the chain scythe was missing. He was taller, and each tail had a compartment on near the top on the left and right side and a collapsible tip where a poison drenched blade could slide out of. Inside each arm was a tank on a rotator that spun to the next when one was emptied. The Sandaime had made them specifically with a seal at the bottom that held fire, water, wind, and lightning.

The head now had a third eye on it. It had a seal designed originally by the Yondaime Hokage that cast a beam that allowed the caster to see through the object, called an X-ray seal. Each arm had a built in katana that extended from a hilt stored inside the arm. And with a simple finger movement, the upper arms and head could combine into a drill. Naruto connected all ten fingers to it, so as to completely focus on Gaara.

The sand rushed forward in a massive tidal wave that was intended to engulf Naruto. However, he began to move his hands in rapid movements and Quick Silver went into action. Flames poured from the palms of each hand and collided with the sand, turning it to glass. The puppet drilled through the sand and rushed Gaara, spewing a concentrated stream of water that sliced through the ground with ease. The Jinchuuriki let loose with more waves of sand. Every time, Naruto would counter the move with some kind of hidden trap.

That was until Gaara brought all of his sand down on top of the puppet. Naruto could no longer operate the joints, because Gaara had filled them with sand. So he abandoned it and moved on to jutsu. He flashed through hand signs and took in a huge breath of air.

"Dual Elemental Style: Wind and Fire Drill!" he yelled. Instantly, a massive spiraling drill of burning air fired towards Gaara and he refocused all his sand to blocking it. The other students and the teachers we captivated by the battle, unable to look away for an instant.

"Give up Naruto, you're going to lose." Gaara told him as his sand pushed back.

"You aren't thinking clearly Gaara. You should have destroyed Quick Silver when you had the chance." Naruto said. Gaara turned, only to find the puppet gone, a large hole in its place. Suddenly, a blast of lightning exploded upwards and Quick Silver appeared, his tails poised to kill Gaara with the twenty-seven swords extended, the poison dripping to the ground and eating away at it. The drill of air and fire exploded, sending sand everywhere. Gaara stepped back, his hands in the air.

"I give in. Naruto has proven he can kill me at his will." Everyone stared in amazement as Naruto withdrew Quick Silver, sealing him into a tattoo in his arm. Iruka smiled as he handed Naruto a ring made of black metal, inscribed with seals.

"Naruto, this is a ring forged by the Hokage himself. It uses your chakra for three purposes. One, you can use it to form a chakra shield around yourself, at the cost of chakra. Two, it comes with three matching rings, that don't have the first or third ability, that can act as radio communication devices. And three, it can contain chakra that you can then use, with any chakra you want to put into it, to fire a concentrated beam of chakra."

Naruto slid the ring onto his right index finger. He exhaled and spun around to face a target. The chakra gathered around the ring and fired through the target, ripping a large hole through the middle. He nodded to himself and slid the hand into his pocket. In a puff of smoke, he disappeared, reappearing on the roof of the apartment building where he was attacked.

A hallway was suspended between the building and the four around them and each of those was connected by a similar connection. Puppets moved in and out of the building, keeping up the buildings and protecting the area. This would become the clan compound once he finally started a family. Until then, it was the perfect place to build puppets, practice jutsu, store weapons, and practice seals.

He jumped over to the building facing the south, and into the building. Each building was facing the direction that their reason corresponded with. South was for the seals. Naruto pulled out the ring from the Hokage and began to study the item. He placed it on a special seal that showed a hologram of the ring dissected. He began to copy down the diagram so he could recreate it, or something like it, later on.

Naruto slipped the ring back onto his finger and moved through the buildings to the east building, used to create his puppets. For the rest of the day, he worked on creating his newest puppets. He finished an hour before sunset, and spent the next three hours practicing with them.

As soon as he had sealed them into the new seal on his arm, the Hokage arrived. "Naruto, have you been here this whole time?"

Hearing the desperation in the Hokage's voice, Naruto nodded. "I just finished my new puppets. Why, what's wrong?"

"Someone stole the forbidden scroll from my office while I was away. The civilians and a lot of ninja are blaming you."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I have video footage of being here. They can't blame me." He said as he pulled an empty scroll over to him with a chakra string. "I'm going to search for the scroll. I'll make sure to report to you as soon as I do."

The Hokage nodded before he disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Naruto took off across the village as fast as possible. He pumped chakra into his legs and jumped as high as he could, making the roof of the house he was on collapse slightly. He soared high enough to see over the wall and pulled out a special pair of binoculars. He found what he was looking for and dashed through the air with a burst of chakra.

Mizuki and Iruka were fighting, each throwing weapons at each other. Strapped to Mizuki's back was the massive Forbidden Scroll. He pulled one of the massive shuriken off of his back and hurled it at the other man. Iruka spun, barely dodging the attack, and returned the attack with a Fireball Jutsu. Mizuki jumped over it and threw another giant shuriken.

Iruka jumped back to dodge the giant shuriken, only to be pinned to the tree by several fast moving kunai. "You didn't really think you had a chance, did you Iruka?" Mizuki asked as he spun the last of the shuriken on his finger. Iruka tried to pull the kunai out, only to discover each one had an explosive note wrapped around the handle. "Pull it out, it goes off."

"Mizuki, you bastard, why are you doing this?!" Iruka demanded.

"Why? Mostly because I was ordered to do so by Master Orochimaru, but partly so I can kill you!" he let the shuriken go and laughed as it flew towards Iruka.

The academy teacher saw his life flash before his eyes and closed them quickly. He waited for the pain but it never came. Instead, he opened his eyes and saw the shuriken had been stopped by several small blue strings, going off into the forest. It was pulled in, followed closely by the other two.

"Iruka-sensei, are you okay?" asked Naruto as he landed next to Iruka.

"Other than the exploding kunai I'm good." Iruka said, gesturing towards the explosives. Naruto snorted and pulled all of them out at once with chakra strings, sending them back towards Mizuki. The traitor activated, but the smoke gave Naruto just what he wanted: time.

Naruto quickly unsealed his three new puppets. As the smoke cleared, Iruka and Mizuki gawked at them in amazement. "Mizuki, Iruka-sensei, feel honored. You are the first to see my newest puppets. Meet Desolation, Retribution, and Genocide."

The first puppet, Desolation, was a tall puppet, with a shield on each arm, in the shape of clock gears. Eight silvery tentacles, made from a flexible liquid metal that formed into any shape or hardened at Naruto's will, waved back in forth, protruding from the puppets back. The chest could open up and close, and since it was made with metal, when the electricity from the seals on its hands touched it, it electrified anyone inside. Its hands could fire small orbs of poison with exploding notes wrapped around them from its finger tips and a wakizashi hung from both hips.

The second puppet, Retribution, was special, in the sense that it had two different forms. The current mode was humanoid, with four arms that each fired a poison drenched spear head on a long cable. A broad sword was strapped on each side of his back, and the chest opened up to reveal a barrel that spun, firing out senbon, shuriken, and kunai at amazing speeds. Two pipes extended from each shoulder blade and over the shoulders, and they both held three canisters at their source, containing three dangerous and fatal poisons.

The final puppet, Genocide, was the most powerful and threatening looking of all. Instead of legs, a long scale covered trunk that spanned six feet, four feet to the ground, two feet extra, was attached to the waist. Two black wings with gold streaks through them expanded outwards from its back. Inside of it was a seal, which held several large tanks full of propane and other combustible material. A hose led from the seal to the arms, were a set of flame throwers could expand from the palms, only Genocide's was more powerful than any flame thrower Naruto had ever added to a puppet, because it used more material to create it, was made by a famous weapons crafter, and ran through an enhancing seal. The flames were as powerful as a high A-, low S-rank fire jutsu. Not only that, but the puppet could control the fire, condensing it or shaping it.

Inside each feather on the wings and scale on the trunk was a seal that ignited the object and caused it to explode on impact when it was released from the wing or trunk, and several advanced self-activating storage seals that replaced the lost feathers and scales in an instant Naruto had gotten from the Hokage lay beneath them. Naruto had placed an amp behind a sound amplification seal array that he had ordered from the famous seal master Jiraiya, allowing it to create a sonic screech at Naruto's will.

Genocide had been in the making every since he had finished Quick Silver, so it had a lot of powerful features. It took Naruto all of the four years since he and Gaara had left Suna to finish it. Of course, he was currently working on plans for even more powerful puppets. But until then, Genocide was Naruto's tanking puppet.

Naruto's chakra strings connected to each of the puppets and he smiled evilly as Genocide lifted into the air, Desolation drew his swords from his hips, and Retribution opened up the holes in his hand and let the spears wiggle out and twist around in the air, ready for use. Genocide activated his flame thrower, making two small tubes extend from his palms. Naruto made a mental note to remove the canisters from his other puppets and add them to the puppet.

Mizuki smirked as he began to flash through hand signs. A dark purple chakra began to swirl angrily around him. "I was able to view part of the scroll before Iruka found me. And with my photographic memory, I remember all the seals. Add to that that I have a seal designed to increase my strength and chakra and I'm invincible! Now then," he said as he began to slow his hands, "DIE YOU BRAT!" he said. He slammed both fists into the tree and roots engulfed him.

"**Forbidden Jutsu: Nature Demon Jutsu!"** the monster that was once Mizuki roared. The creature was made of wood, with purple flames were the eyes should be. It was in the shape of a gargoyle, without the wings, with long sharp claws. He roared and vines exploded from his body, rushing towards Naruto. The blonde puppeteer moved his hands slightly and all three puppets attacked.

Genocide let loose with a waterfall of flame, Desolation's left shield expanded and began to spin, blocking the roots and Retribution sent all four spears hurtling towards Mizuki. The teacher sent more and more attacks out, but what he didn't realize was a clone of Naruto had snuck up behind him and swiped the scroll. The clone disappeared into the forest, under orders to copy the scroll down.

Naruto pulled the puppets back and began to talk to the former teacher. "Mizuki, that jutsu is forbidden because eventually, the vines will pierce you, killing you, and the body will run rampant, unless you are killed. Not only that but it drains amazing amounts of chakra. Give up now. Either way you'll die. But I'll make it quick."

The creature froze suddenly. It began to shudder, and the creature withdrew until the only reminder was Mizuki's left arm, which retained the shape. The teacher smirked but it was obvious the jutsu was draining almost all of his chakra. "Do you know why the village hates you Naruto? Do you want to know why they hate you so?"

"Mizuki, no, it is forbidden!" yelled Iruka, but Mizuki ignored him and continued on.

"It's because Konoha's greatest story is a lie. The fourth didn't kill the fox, no human can. Instead, he sealed it into a child Naruto. And you are that child. You are the Nine Tailed Fox!" Mizuki yelled, and he began to laugh. A kunai imbedded itself in the trunk of the tree he was standing on and exploded. Mizuki growled as he landed, unharmed, on another tree.

"You idiot Mizuki. I met the fox once before. And if he had control, he would have used the puppets to kill every civilian and ninja in this pathetic village and turn them into a puppet themselves. Then, with that kind of army amassed, he would go on to conquer Fire Country and turn everyone in it into his slaves. With the use of the puppets, he would destroy everyone and take over the world. I just want to kill Sasori of the Red Sand and by then I will not need this pathetic village any longer."

Mizuki and Iruka paled as chakra began to gather around Naruto in a massive swirling dome. The chakra flooded into the puppets, which began to glow as well. "And now I give, you the final act of my puppet performance! Tri-Puppet Style: Fallen Angel Poison Bombardment!"

The tentacles on Desolations back connected to Retribution and Genocide. The two massive clock gears expanded and connected, waiting to spin. Genocide flew into the air, his wings spread wide with the feathers primed and his scales slanted so the bottom lifted away, both ready to fall, while four holes opened in its back. Retribution's spears began to glow and hum with electricity and the pipes readied to release their poison. The spears flew upwards, inserting themselves into the holes in Genocide's back, sending the electricity coursing over the scales and feathers. Retribution pulled itself into the air as Desolation's gears began to spin at an incredible speed.

The feathers and scales shot out, followed by four more waves, as Retribution's pipes extended and unleashed it poison. The gears separated, and they spun so fast they made funnels that surrounded the poison, making sure none it was let loose and wasted, while cutting off Mizuki's escape at the same time. It had taken a lot of time and money for Naruto to dream up this technique and by the parts for it. So when it worked so well he was extremely happy.

Naruto made sure the attack killed Mizuki, but it was mainly for Iruka's sake and to test the technique. A feather landed at his feet and the electricity formed a shield around him. A piece of shrapnel went through his head and into his brain stem, killing him. A clone rushed in quickly and grabbed the body before Iruka could see it. For some reason Naruto didn't want Iruka to see him make Mizuki into a puppet. And he didn't have the right tools for said operation.

The clone from earlier replaced the large scroll while the smoke was in place. Once it cleared, Desolation, Retribution and Genocide were sealed away. Naruto walked over to Iruka and pulled him to his feet.

"Naruto… that was amazing!" Iruka yelled, causing Naruto to flinch and grab his ears.

"I'm right here sensei, you don't need to yell." He said. Iruka rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as Naruto pulled the forbidden scroll over to him with a chakra string. "Here, take this back to the Hokage and tell him what happened." He said as he turned and prepared to leap through the tree.

"Naruto, where are you going?"

Naruto turned to Iruka with tired eyes. "Home, Iruka-sensei, to rest. That attack took a huge amount of chakra. I'm almost dry."

Iruka paled at the prospect. "But your chakra reserves are massive!"

"Exactly. Which is the only reason I was able to use the attack in the first place. It takes too much time and chakra to use against a real danger, but for someone like Mizuki, it's an easy way to test my new puppets a few hours after completion. Now, if you would excuse me."

He shot through the trees, towards his apartment building, thinking of how useful his new puppets were. His thoughts began to wonder to the Uchiha puppets. What would those two be like if they didn't have normal Sharingans, but the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan? _Only one way to find out,_ Naruto thought to himself. But first, he would rest. Then he would figure out how to trick two Uchiha into killing their best friends and how to take their eyes from them.


	4. Waves of Blood

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

**--**

**Chapter Four: Waves of Blood**

Naruto loved this feeling, the calm that came through him as he worked with his puppets. The silent sound of his puppets clicking filled the compound as he removed the tanks containing elements and poison from the other puppets before adding them to Retribution and Genocide. He felt the compound shudder and made another mental note to make several more basic battle puppets. He had made a custom puppet hand that controlled several puppets at once and placed it in the dojo that was the basement. He made several basic battle puppets and let Gaara train with them.

He finished changing out the tanks and began to tinker with the three constructs, fine tuning the internal mechanisms. Then he pulled out Quick Silver and his four human puppets. He stared at the eight puppets, and began to wonder how he was going to be able to control them and any other puppets he obtains later on and still fight himself. That was always the greatest weakness of a puppet master.

He resealed them quickly and opened up a book entitled _A History of Summoning Contracts_ and began to read. He finished the book a few hours later and threw it randomly onto the bookshelf. He realized that soon they would need to by a new one if they didn't want to start leaving the scrolls and books on the floor. As Naruto was walking down the hallway to his room, he spotted his reflection in the full length mirror hanging from the wall. He still had the annoying orange jumpsuit he always wore, and it was beginning to get to small.

He moved over to the wall where an intercom was waiting to be used. He pressed the button that activated the link between this intercom and the one below him in the dojo where Gaara was training. "Gaara, this is Naruto. I'm going out to buy some new outfits from the shop. I'll be back in a few hours."

He jumped out of the window and through the air. Seeing a chance to try a new jutsu, Naruto flashed through hand seals and watched in satisfaction as the air around his feet condensed and hardened, forming a board beneath him. He began to steer it towards the center of the village. He took note of the adrenaline coursing through his veins, the feel of the wind on his face, the yell of excitement he couldn't hold back, as he flipped in the air several times. He dove down into the village streets, shocking the villagers and shinobi that saw him. He came to a halt in front of the biggest ninja store in Konoha, the Wolf Claw, which he and Gaara had owned for the past two years. The jutsu faded away and he fell to the ground, landing in a slight crouch.

The bell above the door rang once as he entered. The shop owner, a man named Tenshi, who had short black hair and brown eyes, smiled at him and yelled into the back, "Tenten, Izuma, Mr. Uzumaki is here to see us! Bring out his order from the back!" before waving Naruto over. "What can I help you with today Naruto?"

"I was looking in the mirror earlier, and I realized that I need new clothes. I figured I may as well come pick up my order from you as long as I need to do some shopping. It didn't cost you too much I hope." He said as he pulled out three large wads of bills and put them on the counter.

"Not too much. The main cost came from transportation. If someone had got a hold of these items, they could destroy an entire army. So naturally we had to hire a large amount of samurai and ninja to guard it. And we had to pay them extra so they would willingly stay in the dark. Of course, considering the amount of pieces, it's no surprise. But this should cover it." He said as he took the three wads. Naruto sighed and gave him two more wads.

"That sounds like a lot of work on your part. And use the extra to upgrade your house and the store." Naruto said as Tenshi smiled happily and slipped the two wads in with the three others. A few moments later, a woman stepped out from the back. She had long black hair, green eyes, and was dressed in ANBU gear. She wrapped her arms around Tenshi's neck and kissed him on the cheek. Tenshi smiled as a blush crept up on his face.

"Izuma, so good to see you. As beautiful as ever I see." Naruto said. The woman smiled and let go of her husband.

"It's good to see you too Naruto. Did I hear you say you needed some new clothes?" Naruto nodded and her face lit up. "Well then, allow me to help you." Before she came around the counter, she leaned into the doorway and yelled, "TENTEN, HURRY IT UP IN THERE!"

Naruto rubbed his temples as he and Izuma walked towards the clothes section, while Tenshi went in the back to help his daughter. For the next forty minutes, Izuma made him try on outfit after outfit while making two piles, one for clothes he would buy, one for clothes she rejected. At the end of the forty minutes, Naruto was smiling slightly at his reflection in the mirror. The orange jumpsuit had been taken by Izuma into the back where she said she was going to make a modification to it. Naruto made sure he took the swirl symbol off of the jacket first though.

Now, he was wearing a short sleeved gray with a trench coat the color of dried blood that had several pockets and places for scrolls. Since it was designed for ninja, it had a storage seal sewn into the inside on either side, large enough for one weapon, so a ninja could put a sword or ax or scythe inside of it and if they got in a jam they could summon it and surprise their enemy. He also had on a pair of loose ninja pants that didn't cling to his legs, and instead of the traditional ninja sandals, Izuma had gotten him a pair of steel toed boots. On his arms were two metal bracers with his signature symbol carved into them, courtesy of Izuma's special chakra affinity to metal.

"Well, don't you look handsome?" Izuma said from behind him. Naruto turned, and a massive sweat drop appeared on the back of his head when he saw she had put the jump suit on a cross made from two thin branches and painted a bulls-eye on the front and back. She smiled when she saw him looking at it. "You have no idea how many people hate this thing. So I'm gonna put it in the middle of the village and you're gonna set it on fire." Naruto's sweat drop had disappeared, but quickly reappeared at the explanation.

"Is my order ready yet Izuma?" he asked, hoping she would put the thing down. She nodded and carried it with her, much to Naruto's chagrin, to the front counter on her shoulder. Waiting for Naruto were three neatly arranged pyramids of scrolls, ten in each. Naruto pull out a scroll, unrolled it, and swung it as he channeled chakra through the paper. The storage scroll on the end of the paper swallowed the pyramids as soon as it came in contacted with them. Naruto re-rolled the scroll and put it away.

"Now, let's head to the village center and burn this thing!" Izuma yelled, while Naruto slapped his face.

He followed Izuma to the center of the village where hundreds of civilians were watching them as she dug the cross into the ground. Naruto sighed as she announced what was about to happen and a crowd formed. Well, if they wanted a show, Naruto would just have to give them one.

He flashed through hand signs and took a huge breathe. "Fire Style," his voice sounded from everywhere, but nowhere, "Grand Phoenix Assault Jutsu!" the jutsu was high level, and took a lot of chakra, but by doing this, Naruto was gaining the favor of the villagers. He didn't really want it, but if they liked him, they wouldn't attack his compound and interrupt his puppet construction.

A massive stream of fire flowed through the air like water, wrapping itself around the jumpsuit. It spiraled up above the orange article and suddenly turned into a large bird. The crowd cheered with excitement as the creature turned and hit the jumpsuit. The thing began to burn slowly, feeding the crowd's excitement as each string was turned to ash. Suddenly, the phoenix reappeared and swallowed the jumpsuit whole with a mighty screech. The crowd cheered as Naruto bowed to each.

He formed the hand signs and was lifted upwards into the air by the wind board. The civilians gawked as he turned to leave. However, before he could, a girl he recognized came running through the crowd towards him. She wore traditional ninja pants, with a pink Chinese shirt and her black hair tied into two buns on her head. In her hand was a bag. She ran over to Naruto and lifted it up to him. "You forgot to get your clothes Naruto."

"Thanks Tenten. I'll see you later." He said, before he shot off towards the compound, not noticing the blush that formed on her face. Her mother stepped up behind her and smiled.

"Tenten, you're no longer aloud to see Naruto. I don't want to be a grandma early in life."

"MOM!"

When Naruto arrived, he found Gaara, the owners of Ichiraku Ramen and the Hokage drinking tea while sitting on the couch.

"Ah, Naruto, just who we wanted to see." The Hokage said as he set down his cup. "Could I see your headband for a moment please?" he asked. Naruto untied the headband from his forehead, slightly confused, and handed it to the old man, who pulled out a sealing scroll. "Gaara, could I see yours too please?"

The red head handed the headband over quietly. The Hokage put both of them on the storage seal and in a puff of smoke they were gone. "Those headbands can go to some Genin next year." As soon as the words left his mouth, Gaara and Naruto stood up and began to yell in outrage.

"What the hell old man?! I save the Forbidden Scroll from a traitor and the village takes away my ninja status?! And what has Gaara done to anyone to deserve this?!"

"Would you both please just sit down for half a damn second?" the Hokage yelled back. The two Jinchuuriki did as they were asked with a few words grumbled under their breath. "Now, as I tried to say, after considering everything I've seen from you two, your abilities, your strength, your knowledge, your control over your demons, and also considering your potential, I have decided to invoke an old law."

The Jinchuuriki prepared for the worse as the Hokage reached into his pocket. "I'm making you two my personal ninja." And he pulled out two completely different headbands. One had a long orange clothe that when tied would reach down to the person's shoulders. On the plate was the Konoha symbol inside of Naruto's signature swirl pattern with nine tail-like indentions circling it. The other had a shorter, brown piece of clothe that went to the bottom of the person's head and a Konoha symbol about to be swallowed by a Shukaku paw.

He handed the brown one to Gaara, and the orange one to Naruto. "From this point on, you two only take orders from me, not from anyone else. You are above the rules as long as you wear these headbands. No one can stop you as long as you aren't committing treason."

"Lord Hokage," Gaara put in, "won't making the two of us your personal ninja make the graduating class uneven and cause a two man team?"

"Yes, it would, normally, but a young girl named Hanabi Hyuuga is one year behind you, and she is quite good. So good that she has graduated early, and will be taking the spot Gaara would have taken." Satisfied with the answer, Naruto and Gaara put the headbands on and sat back down on the couch.

"As for us," the old ramen chief said, "we came to tell you that we have to leave the village for a month to go to the annual Land of Fire Ramen Super Cook-off. We have a good chance of winning this year. We would bring you along, but now that you're a ninja, you'll have missions to do."

"So, the shop is going to be closed for a month?" Naruto asked. The Hokage was surprised to hear the sadness in the boy's voice. It may seem dumb, if you think that he's only sad because he won't get ramen, but the Sandaime knew the man and his daughter were one of Naruto's five precious people, himself, Gaara, and Iruka being the others. To him it was like losing his uncle and sister. The Sandaime smiled sadly at the fact Naruto still had enough emotion to care.

"Well, yes, but I got you this." He said, pulling out a box of Pocky. "A very good friend of mine makes Pocky and I asked him to make you a special 'Ramen Flavor' box. He made you thirty boxes, and it should taste exactly like my ramen." He said, throwing Naruto a box and a scroll his friend had so generously sealed the others into. Naruto pulled out one of the biscuit sticks and took a bite. He finished it off in seconds. Before he could grab another, Gaara's sand flew forward and wrapped around his hand.

"Save them Naruto. They'll be for special occasions." Naruto nodded and the sand withdrew. Instantly, the blonde was stuffing his face with the candy. Gaara jumped on him, trying to wrestle the box from his hands, only for Naruto to kick him off. He unsealed all of his puppets and ordered all nearby security puppets to attack, while yelling out, "YOU WILL NO TOUCH THE PRECIOUS!!!!"

The Sandaime jumped up and hit both of them in pressure points, blocking off their chakras from their control. Naruto's puppets clattered to the ground useless, and the Earth Style jutsu Gaara was about to use was dispelled.

"Naruto, no more Pocky for a while okay? You aren't getting any more of this stuff." Naruto reluctantly handed over the sweet to the Hokage. The old man then handed it to Gaara, who hid it away in his pocket which he then sealed with several layers of sand. Naruto stared longingly at it as the taste of the first stick lingered in his mouth.

"Now then," he said as the Ichiraku family left, "the two of you are to report to my office tomorrow for your first mission."

"Yes Lord Hokage." They said, bowing to the leader of the village. As soon as the man left, Naruto jumped on the redhead again.

(Scene Change)

Across town, two Chuunin rank ninja were sitting in a bar, each with a cup of sake in his hand. Both of them were trying to drink away the memories, the memories of the night they attacked the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Naruto, and watched him slaughter all the civilians with them. He was brutal yet at the same time effective and quick. For some reason though, he had spared them, and every since, they would go back to that night every time they closed their eyes for more than a second.

"Hey, Koketsu, you know what we should do?" asked one of them, a man with long black hair. His headband was opened, covering the top part of his head. He gulped down the sake with the zealous of a man that had been in the desert for weeks.

"No Izumo, I don't know, and I don't want to know." Koketsu, a man with spiky black hair with a bandage over his nose, replied. He grabbed the bottle and downed the contents quickly.

"Well too bad, because you're going to find out." Izumo told him. "I think we should go apologize to the Uzumaki kid for what we did."

Koketsu stopped with his cup of sake half-way to his mouth. "And what makes you think he won't kill us on sight?"

"I don't know if he will or not. But I do know that it's the right thing to do, and I'm going over there whether you decide to come with me or stay here and get stone drunk as usual." The Chuunin said before standing up and leaving the bar. Koketsu sighed before getting up and following him. They jumped from rooftop to rooftop, until finally they arrived at the compound. As soon as they were within a hundred feet of the building, puppets came pouring out of the building. They surrounded the two Chuunin, who simply stood and waited for the blonde Jinchuuriki who was walking through the crowd of puppets.

"I remember you two." Naruto said once he and Gaara arrived. "Quick Silver's attack missed the day I began making human puppets and I used you to spread the word about my compound. What could you possibly want here?"

"We want to apologize for that night." Izumo said. "We got caught up in the villager's propaganda because of how drunk we got. We're sorry for what we did. We just thought you should know that."

Naruto and Gaara stared at each other, digesting the news. Naruto snapped and the puppets disappeared back into the compound. Koketsu and Izumo relaxed when he did this. "Get off of this property. What's done is done." The two Jinchuuriki walked back into the compound, leaving two shocked Chuunin. Said Chuunin both turned and moved back to the bar.

(Scene Change)

Naruto and Gaara stood before the council and the Hokage, awaiting their orders. "Naruto, Gaara," the Hokage said, "We have been experiencing several problems of late with the Kaguya clan. They tried to destroy Kirigakure, the Village hidden in the Mist, a few years back. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, they failed, but they weren't wiped out. Orochimaru came and took their strongest warrior, a boy named Kimimaro, with him, but twenty male members and sixty female members of the clan still live, and they are now in the Land of Fire, only ten miles from here. We don't want to take the chance of them trying the same thing with us."

"You're mission is to go wipe out the Kaguya and dispose of their bodies in the most beneficial way possible. Leave the females alive if you can help it. This is a mid B-rank mission. Do you except?" the Hokage asked, holding out the mission scroll for them. In reply, Naruto took the scroll, and they disappeared in a blast of wind, sand, and leaves.

"Sarutobi, how dare you?!" yelled his female teammate, Koharu. "You know the boy is going to turn the corpses into his puppets!"

"Yes, I do know that." I told them. "But I missed his birthday last year, so I owned him a present." He enjoyed the shocked looks on the council members' faces as he left the room.

(Scene Change)

Sasuke held his arm as he limped down the street, pain rushing through him with each step. His new sensei was brutal, some man named Kakashi Hatake, and he had just given them a test to see if they were worthy or not. He had beaten the crap out of him, Sakura Haruno, and Hanabi Hyuuga, who, even though their clans were rivals, he instantly decided he didn't hate when she knocked out Sakura when she almost gave away their position.

He smiled when he saw Naruto, the stupid blonde kid who had just showed up and outclassed him in the academy, walking down the street, holding a scroll open while scanning it. Sasuke dashed forward and stole it quickly. "Hey Uzumaki, what you got here? Drawings for your new dolls?" he laughed at his own joke before looking down at the scroll. His eyes widened and he stared at Naruto and Gaara in amazement.

Naruto took the scroll and rolled it back up. "Is something wrong Sasuke Uchiha?" Naruto asked, sliding the scroll into his pocket.

"The council is sending you two to wipe out the Kaguya Clan? Even the Uchiha have trouble with them!" Sasuke yelled, much to his own chagrin when he realized he had just insulted his clan and himself.

"Well, the Hokage is. We get all our assignments from him and answer no one but him. Now if you would excuse us," Naruto said, pushing Sasuke out of their way, "we need to get supplies for this mission."

Sasuke's hands turned to fist and his knuckles turned white. He jumped on the rooftops, rushing towards his home. His father would want to hear of this new development.

(Scene Change)

Naruto and Gaara rushed through the trees towards the Kaguya camp. Naruto had a book opened which detailed the clan's abilities. "It seems that the Kekkei Genkai only appears in certain people, so kill anyone who doesn't exhibit the ability."

"Calm down Naruto. I know what to do." Gaara said. Naruto nodded before spinning in the air, unsealing Desolation, Retribution and Genocide from their seals. The puppets followed them through the woods for another three minutes before they found a large clearing. Gaara and Naruto could hear the moans of woman being forced to have sex. Both their eyes narrowed as Naruto sent Genocide into the air and had him set one of the buildings on fire. Retribution changed into the second form Naruto had designed into it, a massive lion, with two snake tails, a wolf head on the chest, and two wings of fire sprouting from the back. From each of its leg, a cannon sprouted and fired bursts of super hot steam, melting anything in its path. Desolation rushed through the camp, his gears spinning as lightning flew off of them.

It didn't take long for the man to come out to investigate. Gaara turned to Naruto as he withdrew his puppets with a questioning gaze. "Something just dawned on me Naruto. How are you supposed to turn them into puppets when the bodies of puppets are wooden and any bones sprouting would destroy the body?"

"There is three ways to make a Human Puppet. I just have to implore a different one from usual." He said right before they jumped into the center of the camp, drawing all the attention. Naruto pulled his three puppets in close to him. "Alright, who here possesses the Dead Bone Pulse ability?"

Two men stepped forwards, twins dressed in foreign armor with short green hair. "I am Yen." One said.

"And I am Yong." The other told them.

"We were in a foreign country at the time of the attack, or we would have helped destroy the Mist." Yen explained. Naruto noticed Yen had blue eyes while Yong had brown eyes. This would make them easier to tell apart when he used them. Naruto smirked as his five other puppets appeared.

"Gaara, crush the useless ones. I've got these two." Gaara's sand flew past Yen and Yong before they could say anything and swallowed the other men. Gaara clenched his hand for a second and blood exploded from the eighteen sand cocoons of sand that had started to levitate in the air behind them. Before either of the shocked men could say anything, Retribution shot forward and opened its lion mouth, exhaling a massive blast of poison gas into their faces. They both inhaled the poison by accident. Instantly they began to sway back and forth, and they started to feel lightheaded.

Naruto sealed the puppets away before slicing the two men's throats. He sealed them away and began to explore the camp. He found several crude weapons, as well as a massive scroll containing the clan library. They found several large attack dogs that for some reason took a liking to the two Jinchuuriki, so they decided to let them come live at the compound. And then they found the women.

There were sixty of them, just like the Hokage had said. Each was dressed either in rags or nude. All of them had obedience seals painted around their necks, binding them to the Kaguya clan. Fortunately for them, the seals would be easy to break for a person of Naruto's level.

"Ladies," Naruto said, getting their attention, "the Kaguya clan is no more. You are free to go." The girls looked at him in amazement. He squinted, and realized they also had muting seals on their tongues, so they couldn't speak. "Oh, I see. Please, hold still."

Gaara watched in interest as Naruto painted a large diagram on the ground around the slave girls. He drew several lines leading to a circle around them. When it was finished, he flashed through hand seals and punched the ground. The seal lit up the surrounding area, and the girls grasped their throats. Then they scratched at their necks. At finally, they doubled over as if punched in the stomach.

"W-w-what have you done?" a woman, the obvious leader, asked.

"I removed the two seals and terminated your pregnancies. If that was what you wanted. The seal looked inside of you and made the choice for you off of the information it gleamed from your subconscious." He said as they began to leave.

"Please, wait just one moment." The leader said. Naruto sighed before turning around and looking her up and down. She was dressed in shinobi clothes, ripped between her legs and chest showing her privates. But Naruto was looking her in the face, at her full red lips, he beautiful blonde hair, her cerulean eyes. "My name is Hato Karei. I'm also the only girl here to never had been violated because of my strong will, and the elected leader of these girls."

Naruto stared at her for a moment. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and this is my friend Gaara. We are ninja of the current Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, come to wipe out the Kaguya clan so they won't grow powerful again and try to destroy Konoha. That is where we will be going once we have finished looking through the camp." He said, forming a hand sign. Instantly, thirty solid, substantial Naruto's appeared and ran off in different directions.

"Please," Hato begged, "let us come with you. Most of us are shinobi who have had our chakra sealed away. All we need is some Kaguya blood and we'll be ninja again. We can't go back to our families, the Kaguya killed them all. Please, let us come with you."

Naruto sighed before nodding. "Come on then. And here," he said, throwing them two scrolls that rolled open and let out two piles of clothes. "These are some clothes that should fit you. Put them on while Gaara and I get enough blood to wipe away all of your seals." The women thanked Naruto before they quickly put the clothes on.

(Scene Change)

Fugaku tapped his fingers on the desk. His son Sasuke had brought him some very interesting information. He would have to figure out a way to kill they two Jinchuuriki without the Hokage realizing that it was the Uchiha clan. A smile split over the head of the Uchiha Clan as an idea formed in his head.

"Itachi, please come in here." He said, loud enough for the people on the other side of the sliding door to hear.

"Yes father, what do you need?"Itachi asked as he entered, garbed in his ANBU armor.

"I need you to do me a favor. Go to the Village Hidden in the Mist, Kirigakure, and tell the Mizukage, Yagura, that I want to hire two assassins to kill Naruto Uzumaki for us, and that they are to not reveal who hired them under any circumstance."

"Would you like me to request any particular assassins father?"

Fugaku's smile grew wider. "Yes, if you would, ask for Mei and Fuubi Terumi."

(Scene Change)

Naruto, Gaara, and the group of women arrived at the gates of Konoha, where Izumo and Koketsu were stationed. When the two Chuunin saw Naruto, their faces fell. As they were stamping their papers, Naruto sighed, and said, "Fine, I forgive. If it came down to it, I would have bought into that propaganda to after hearing it for so long."

The two Chuunin smiled and finished stamping the papers. "I'll take the girls to the compound Naruto. You turn in the mission okay?" Naruto nodded before disappearing in a swirl of golden flames. "Show off." Gaara mumbled as the girls squealed in amazement.

Naruto appeared in the middle of a council meeting. He handed the Hokage the mission scroll and momentarily unsealed the bodies of Yen and Yong for them. "Good job Naruto." The old man said, handing Naruto a scroll full of money. "But I'm sorry to say we have another mission for you. Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Hanabi Hyuuga, and Kakashi Hatake are in trouble. They took what was considered a C-rank mission, only to be attacked by an A-rank criminal, Zabuza Momochi. They drove him off, but Kakashi has chakra exhaustion. We need you and Gaara to travel to Wave Country to help them guard the bridge builder Tazuna until his bridge is done."

Naruto took the mission scroll from him and nodded. "Just let me drop off some of my puppets and begin the process of turning these two into puppets. I, ah, also need sixty headbands." Sarutobi's eyebrow flew up. "Well, turns out all the Kaguya women were slaves who were once shinobi. They're living at the compound now, and I need headbands for them."

A smile split over Sarutobi's face. "I'll have them sent over for you. But please hurry Naruto."

The blonde nodded before being engulfed in the golden flames.

(Scene Change)

Naruto landed in his living room. He threw the scroll to Gaara while he went over to the puppet compound to begin the transformation on Yen and Yong. Four hours later, he was ready to go. He and Gaara shot out of the window and dashed through the village. They didn't stop to open the gate, instead opting to jump straight over it. They shot down the road before Gaara surrounded them in an orb of sand that sent them shooting through the sky like a cannon ball.

They landed at a small town a few hours later, where they rented a small boat to take them to Wave. They stared at the massive bridge spanning the water towards the town. "So that's Tazuna's bridge huh?"

"Yes it is. If Tazuna manages to finish that bridge, Wave's economy will start to boom again, and Gato's choke hold on the country will be destroyed." The boat driver explained to them. Once they got across the water, they paid him ten times his normal fee to thank him, and ran to the large three story house where the others were waiting for them.

Naruto knocked on the door, and a beautiful looking woman answered the door. Naruto put on a fake smile. "Hello there Mrs. I'm Naruto and this is Gaara. We're here to assist the ninja here in protecting your father."

"Oh, you're the reinforcements the ninja called for. Please, come right on in." they came inside the house, examining it. There were holes in the walls and the paint was peeling. The food used to make the dinner was basic stuff, and the carpeting was old. Naruto sighed and pulled out a brush, ink pot, and some spare puppets.

"Gaara check out the house. I'm going to set up some security puppets." He said as he jumped into two of the corners of the room. He painted the same seals he had in his compound and attached a spare puppet hand while setting his puppet in the corner and casting a minor Genjutsu on it. He repeated this five teams on the next two floors, and put three on the top of the roof of the house. Then he jumped back down to the first floor and sent out a pulse of chakra to activate the puppets.

"Ah, Naruto, so good of you to join us." Kakashi called out. Naruto nodded and sat down next to Gaara. He ate a small plate before turning to the one eyed Jounin.

"So what do you're students know thus far?"

"Well, Sakura Haruno is our weakest member, with great chakra control, but little chakra. Sasuke Uchiha, well, his skills are no secret from the Konoha populace. And Hanabi Hyuuga has great skill with Gentle Fist Fighting Style." Naruto tapped his fingers on the table a few times.

"Hanabi," he said, addressing the thirteen year old, "I know a lot about the Gentle Fist Style, thanks to you and your sister. Would you like to train with me?"

"Um, yeah, I guess." She said, eating a spoonful of rice.

"Gaara, can you train the Haruno girl?" Gaara nodded and he turned to Kakashi. "You train the Uchiha Kakashi. We'll begin tomorrow." He said, and with that, he stood up and went up to the room he and Gaara were sharing and fell asleep.

(The Next Day)

Naruto sat on a tree branch, meditating. He'd been at it for hours, going over the Hyuuga fighting style and thinking of ways to improve it, when Hanabi finally arrived.

"Okay, look," she said. "I know you're a good ninja and all, but you won't be able to teach me anything new."

"I can teach you the technique used by the original Hyuuga clan head. It wasn't that hard to master really, but for some reason your clan thinks by learning the technique they are disgracing his memory or something." Naruto smiled internally at the hungry look in Hanabi's eyes. He dropped to the ground by her and bit his thumb. "Allow me to demonstrate with my puppet Senna."

In a blast of smoke the Hyuuga puppet appeared Naruto connected his strings to her, mainly so he could funnel more chakra through her. "Turn on your Byakugan so you can see the way the chakra is funneled." He ordered. Hanabi complied, turning her eyes from a lovely shade of lavender to an off-white color with veins bulging around them. She stared in interest as the chakra began to funnel into the puppets arm.

It twisted and bent, forming into a ball behind the chakra point in the puppets hand. She palmed the air and the chakra shot out in a small beam that twisted outwards into a tempest of energy and curved back around the puppets arm, forming a massive spinning drill. The same thing happened with the other arm, only instead of a drill, it was a sword. The puppet dashed forward, destroying two trees in the process.

"You see, you expel the chakra out of the chakra point on whatever limb you want to use the technique on and shift it into that shape. Then you harden it with your mind, forcing it to stay in the shape you choose until you let it go. You can also form it into beams or use it to create weapons while using Eight Trigrams Rotation and send them flying outwards, dealing damage in a larger area. You give it a try. Start with forming the chakra." Naruto ordered as he pulled his headband down over one eye.

"Why are you doing that?" Hanabi asked, noticing the veins that suddenly rippled out from Senna's eyes.

"There is a seal on the headband that lets me see out of her eyes. This way I can monitor your chakra and tell you how to mold it correctly. Otherwise your arm will explode." Hanabi gulped and began to focus the chakra to her palm.

(Scene Change)

Gaara stared at Sakura in contemplation. Then he nodded and grabbed her shoulder. His sand engulfed them and began to move. A moment later, they landed in a field covered in cherry blossoms. "Alright Haruno, this is the best thing I could think of for you. All around you are cherry blossoms. But, much like you, they have a hidden potential you just need to tap into." He bent down and picked up a single blossom. Chakra raced through it and cut it into several pieces, which then rolled up into tiny sand-like particles. "I'm going to teach you to do this with every blossom in the field."

"Why Gaara-sensei?"

"Because," he said as he unsealed a large hourglass, a spare container for his sand, "This is a great chakra control and building exercise. And when we are done, you'll be able to control the blossom sand like I control mine. With a few advanced seals you'll be able to turn it into an advance self-activated armor as well."

Sakura picked up a cheery blossom and focused her charka into it. It split into ten pieces like Gaara's, and then she used her chakra to roll them up and compact them in grains of sand. As soon as this was done, she started to pant.

Gaara pulled out a pot of ink and a brush and painted a storage seal on her arm. He sealed the few grains she had into it. "Eventually we'll put the sand into this container." He said, tapping the hourglass before sealing it into his seal. "But for now we'll keep it sealed in there okay?"

Sakura nodded before continuing with the process.

(Scene Change)

Kakashi had his face buried in his book, giggling every now and then. Sasuke was leaning against a tree, wondering when they finally would get to training. Then he remembered his father always told him. "_We are Uchiha boy! We make the first move and we win!_"

So Sasuke flashed through a set of hand seals and let loose with a massive fireball. Kakashi simply jumped over it, landing on the tree behind Sasuke, as the fireball demolished the tree he had just been on. Sighing, the one eyes Jounin put the book in his kunai holder before dropping to the ground.

"Sasuke, it's not smart to attack a superior opponent without knowing their skills."

"Superior?" Sasuke said in disbelief. "I am an Uchiha. As soon as I unlock my Sharingan I will be much stronger than you."

Kakashi tilted his head to the side. "Sasuke, your older brother, Itachi, does he use his Sharingan every second of every day?"

"Well," Sasuke said, rubbing the back of his head in confusion, "no, he doesn't. In fact I rarely see him use it."

"Exactly. Yet he's still the strongest person in your clan. The Sharingan isn't what makes Itachi strong. It's the fact that he works harder than anyone else. And you know Naruto?" Sasuke nodded, his hands balling into fists at the thought of the blonde. "I saw him beat the _shit_ out of Itachi a few weeks ago."

Sasuke's anger hit a new high, and he rushed Kakashi, intent on killing him, maiming him, or destroying that stupid book. He threw a punch at Kakashi, who bent to the side and slammed a kick into Sasuke's side. A moment later, he landed a fist in his gut. Sasuke yelped as the metal of Kakashi's glove, which barely touched him, sent a wave of heat over his skin, burning him.

As Sasuke fell to the ground, Kakashi cracked his knuckles. "That was a taste of the style I'm about to begin to teach you. Think you can handle it?" Sasuke spit out a glob of blood and nodded.

(Scene Change)

That Night, Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari, Tsunami's son, stared in shock as the ninja arrived back from training. Naruto, Gaara, and Kakashi were all the same, but the Genin were different. Hanabi's hand was bleeding slightly, and she had several shallow cuts running up her arms. Her sleeve had been completely torn off and her hair was crazy. Sakura crushed a cherry blossom that had stuck to the bottom of her shoe with every step, and looked like she'd never had a good nights worth of sleep. Sasuke had several burn marks and patches, and was drenched head to toe.

"Well then," Naruto said as they sat down, "Let's eat shall we?" and with that they dug in. For the rest of the week, they returned tired, but each time, they weren't as worse for wear, and they had a large smile on their face. Five days after Naruto and Gaara arrived, they were talking about their training, when the kid, Inari, slammed his fist into the table.

"What's wrong with you people?! You can't beat Gato, no matter how hard you try! You all act so strong, but you don't know anything about what we've been through! None of you have had a life as bad as mine." He didn't last long.

A wave of sand swarmed forward and wrapped around him, throwing him against the wall and pinning him them, and Naruto was in front of him, his arm up to his elbow wrapped in sand, and his fingers around the boy's throat. "Gaara," he ordered, "Let me go so I can kill him! You know you want to do the same! He doesn't know anything about us!" the anger in his voice scared everyone in the room.

"Naruto, he doesn't know. Just let him go." Gaara said. Naruto growled and ripped his arm out of the sand. Red chakra was dancing over his arm, and his nails were long claws. His eyes had become slitted and red, and his canine's had lengthened. Her jumped through the window, and dashed out into the forest. Gaara released Inari, setting him down on the floor.

"I'm sorry, but Inari, you know nothing of what Naruto and I have gone through. Naruto never had a family, and the villagers always hated him and beat him because the Kyuubi is sealed within him. Until he learned how to turn humans into puppets, he was beaten regularly. And while I knew my family, they all hated me, and hundreds of assassination attempts have been made on me. However, when my uncle, the one true person I thought loved me, tried to do the same, I went blood crazy, because of my demon, the Shukaku, until Naruto and I met. He calmed me done. I don't know what you went through, but it's not as bad as that."

And with that, Gaara disappeared in a tornado of sand.

(Scene Change)

Naruto was having one of those rare moments when he let his emotions loose. He was flashing through hand signs, using jutsu to obliterate the surrounding area. Trees flew through the air then exploded in a shower of splinters; rocks were ripped up from over a hundred feet beneath the surface and obliterated. Several times, Gaara had to guard himself after he arrived. To finish the destructive fit of rage, Naruto focused all of his chakra into his fist, like the move he was teaching Hanabi, and punched the ground. A massive explosive cyclone of chakra ripped apart the ground, leaving a massive crater.

"Well, that technique is coming along very well." Gaara said. Naruto turned to him, his eyes still red. The Kyuubi's influence disappeared, and Naruto calmly pushed the dirt and dust off of him with a pulse of chakra.

"That little brat needs to learn there are always people off worse then you." Naruto said as he and Gaara began to walk back to the house.

"Naruto, give him a break. He never knew his real father and his stepfather was murdered before everyone in town. He's traumatized." Naruto snorted before veering off.

"I'm going to go work on some puppet designs. I'll be back in the morning." Gaara nodded before disappearing into the sand twister.

Naruto went to a clearing full of healing herbs, where he climbed up a tree and stared up at the sky, looking for inspiration for new puppets.

(Scene Change)

Naruto awoke to the sound of birds chirping, the wind blowing, and the sun shining in his eyes. In one hand was a sketch pad full of puppet designs and sketches, and in the other, a bag full of pencils to draw with. He started reaching above him, where a set of puppets arms were forming a hand seal, causing a shield that blocked Naruto from sight to appear around him, when he heard a crunch of dried leaves.

Looking down into the clearing, he saw a girl dressed in a pink kimono with her hair down, picking up herbs. Naruto stared at the herbs, categorizing each on into what they can make. While he preferred poison, he had to learn what plants can make what healing ointments, so he could make antidotes for said poison. And the plants the girl had, combined with the ones she was picking, could make several things, including chakra boosters, muscle relaxants, muscle strengtheners, reflexes increaser, and a medley of others.

Naruto wiped blood on a seal and the puppet arms disappeared. He jumped down, landing behind the girl, and drew a katana handle. The blade shot out of the handle and gleamed in the morning sun. The girl jumped back, pulling out senbon as she did. Naruto stared at her, before sniffing the air. He relaxed and began to laugh, a blood chilling sound that sent chills down the girl's back.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Naruto asked as he hit a secret button on the handle. The blade collapsed and folded in on itself, leaving only the handle, which Naruto shoved into his kunai pouch, along with the sketch pad and pencils.

"This is what girl's wear." The girl answered, her grip on the senbon lessening slightly.

"Exactly. But you are a guy. And if I'm right," he said, taking a few more sniffs in his/her direction, "you have a Kekkei Genkai that can control ice."

"H-how did you know?" the now revealed boy asked, dropping his senbon.

"Well, you smell like Zabuza for one. You also smell like ice, testosterone, and mist." Naruto explained as he began to leave.

"Wait… aren't you going to fight me?" the boy asked in confusion.

"No, I have to squabble with you. Besides, I have to go spy out the floor plan of Gato's compound. I'm Naruto Uzumaki by the way." He told the boy as he unsealed three things. A pair of sun glasses with X-ray seals, power level detection seals, recording seals, seals to tell what's inside a scroll, and the optical seal that allows Naruto to see out of the puppet's eyes on each lenses, a straw hat that had storage seals painted on the edge which had some nasty surprises built in, and a cloak that covered most of his body that had a picture of the Kyuubi exploding out of hell-fire.

"I'm Haku." The boy answered.

Naruto jumped into one of the lower branches after putting on the three items. He turned to Haku and said, "It was nice meeting you, but be warned, cross my path or attack my precious people, and you will die." And with that, he jumped up onto the air, floating away on what he now called his Air Board Jutsu.

He shot across the island, eventually off of it, until he found his way to an island almost the same size as Wave, with a huge castle wall around the perimeter. Guards patrolled the outer wall and inner fortifications, as well as the lower levels of the island. On the bottom floor were two doors, one leading to Gato, the other leading to the jackpot of all jack pots. It was a massive storage room that was almost completely full that covered over three fourths of the island. Scrolls containing the bodies of prominent ninja to hold as ransom or to turn in as bounties, hundreds of different weapons, massive scrolls containing jutsus, as well several summoning scrolls.

Naruto spent the rest of the night memorizing the guard shift patterns, the way each guard acted, which guards were where at what times, where Gato went at each second. And of course, searching for the vault of the compound. When he finally returned, he told Kakashi to let him sleep in and dropped onto his bed, fully clothed, and covered himself up and falling asleep.

(Scene Change)

At nine thirty, Gaara, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Hanabi all exited the house. Hanabi now had a pair of metal bracers on her arms to protect herself from the backlash of chakra the technique caused. Sasuke now wore gloves like Kakashi's, only with spikes on each knuckle instead of a metal place across. Sakura now had a giant hourglass tied to her back, filled with pink sand. Together, the group began to head towards the bridge with Tazuna.

"Sensei," Hanabi asked, "where is Naruto?"

"He was spying on Gato's compound most of the night, so I let him sleep." Kakashi answered, for once without his little orange book. They took their time getting to the bridge, finally arriving at ten o'clock. When they did arrive, they found all the workers collapsed on the ground, covered in large but shallow cuts, or filled with senbon.

"Kakashi Hatake." A disembodied voice rang out as a thick mist flew in on an invisible wind. "It's so good to see you again." Suddenly, Zabuza was in the middle of their formation. His blade was poised to slit Tazuna's throat, until two waves of sand, one brown, one pink, exploded from either side, and threw Zabuza back through the mist.

"That was a new one." The missing-nin said, wiping some blood from his mouth. Hanabi stepped forward and began to focus chakra into her hand.

"Eat this Zabuza!" she yelled, her Byakugan flaring."Forbidden Hyuuga Style: Chakra Ray Pulse!" a sonic blast of chakra sent the mist and Zabuza reeling backwards. However, Zabuza's assistant dropped down behind him and grabbed him, steadying his master.

"Haku, destroy these brats!" Zabuza hissed. The assistant, dressed as a hunter-nin, nodded, before beginning a set of hand seals. However, Sasuke couldn't have that, and shot forward. He threw a punch, but Haku dodged it by leaning his head to the side. The fist slammed into a stack of wood, and when Sasuke pulled his spikes out, the pile exploded into flames. The Uchiha smiled at the hunter-nin, before beginning a barrage of attacks that blurred in and out of focus. Yet somehow, Haku managed to dodge the attacks. He jumped in the air and flashed through hand seals.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" he yelled. A dragon of water flew upwards and dove down towards Sasuke, who jumped into the air, dodging the massive explosion of water that almost had him. Haku smiled underneath his mask, flashing through a set of one handed hand signs. "Secret Technique: Demon Ice Mirrors!" the water on the ground swirled up into the air, forming shining mirrors. The mirrors formed a tight dome around Sasuke, and as Haku stepped into one and drew several senbon, his reflection appeared in all the others at the same time.

Sasuke gulped. Uchiha or not, this wasn't going to end well at all.

(Scene Change)

Naruto woke up to the sound of something breaking. Instantly, he had Quick Silver out and was rushing down the stairs. His four puppets were fighting off against two obviously expert Samurai. They had already destroyed the two rooftop puppets, and their swords were flying at amazing speeds as they battled these four. Naruto noted with slight surprise that someone had painted chakra enhancing seals on the blades of the men's swords that increased the force and sharpness of the two weapons. Naruto smiled and sent Quick Silver flying forward.

The puppet landed behind the two men and drew two of its four katana, slitting the two men's throats. Naruto sealed them away while at the same time deactivating the puppets and sliding their swords into his cloak. He nodded to Inari, who had two large kitchen knives in his hand, about to attack the two men himself, before disappearing. Obviously, Gato was making his move so Naruto had to do the same.

(Ten Minutes Later)

Naruto smiled as his army of Shadow clones rushed the compound. Alarms went off as the first few clones jumped the walls, killing any and all samurai they found. Naruto himself was more patient. He knew that it would be a long time before all the samurai were killed. If he didn't want to use their bodies, it wouldn't have been such a big deal, just a Giant Fireball Jutsu combined with a Giant Great Breakthrough Jutsu, and they would all be dead. But not this time unfortunately.

Instead, Naruto had his clones round up five hundred of Gato's remaining troops, using his glasses to figure out that Gato himself had disappeared already. He summoned his three newest combat puppets, Mizuki, Yen and Yong. Mizuki was still part nature demon, and Naruto realized that he could have the demon part spread over his body with pulses of chakra. Yen and Yong had been difficult. He ended up putting holes in the bodies of the two Kaguya at random points that would open up and allow the bones to extend.

The clones disappeared up onto the wall as the real Naruto appeared. He had the largest holes on the two Kaguya's, the ones on their backs, open up, and large bones shot into the ground. They spread out underground, sending bone spikes up into the air beneath the men. Mizuki was transformed into his full demon form, and hundreds of small, thin vines, tipped with poisonous thorns and stingers, shot out and stabbed the men through the eyes, or nicked them with the stingers, killing them with the poison.

The samurai dropped to the ground and the clones rushed forward, collecting all the bodies and sealing them up. Naruto however sealed up the twins while riding on Mizuki's back. He used Mizuki's largest vines, twisting them together to form a drill, and burrowing into the ground. He and the puppet dropped down to the bottom floor, where twenty startled samurai stared at them in shock. Naruto grabbed his hat and threw it. With a loud _clink(!)_ the storage seals lit up and hooked blades appeared out of the rim. They sliced through the samurai, taking off their heads quickly, brutally, and effectively.

Next, he sealed up Mizuki and entered the first door, the storage room. He made more clones, and had them seal up the bodies and everything in that room, while he went into the second room, Gato's office. Behind a large painting of Gato was a safe. He stuck an explosive note on it and backed a few feet away. Then he opened up the now unlocked safe and took everything within. Then he pulled out four bundles of his most powerful explosive notes. He stuck them to the walls as he ascended through the levels of the compound, putting one on the wall every sixty feet or so, connecting them with chakra strings.

As he exited the compound, a clone handed him a scroll containing the bodies of the samurai. Another clone came out and gave him a scroll containing two larger scrolls that had everything in the storage room, as well as the bodies. The clones dispersed and he lifted into the air on the Air Board Jutsu, until he was fifty feet above the wall. Then he summoned his newest puppet series, a group of non-combat puppets used to create seals. He controlled each of these ten puppets with one finger as he ran around, painting seals on the walls. Thirty minutes later, he unrolled a scroll slightly and made a hand seal. The castle wall exploded into white smoke, which snaked its way up to scroll and attached itself to the paper. He then rolled it up and snapped his fingers, turned, and could be seen shooting off towards the bridge as the entire island imploded and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

(Scene Change)

The battle at the bridge was not going as well as they had hoped. Sasuke was still trapped inside the dome, and now so was Hanabi, who had tried to rescue him. Sakura had herself and Tazuna wrapped in a sphere of pink sand, and Gaara and Kakashi were using their individual abilities to attack Zabuza. Haku was throwing senbon after senbon, and Hanabi was already two thirds of the way empty of her chakra reserves after using the chakra pulse so many times to deflect his attacks. Sakura's sand was getting wet from the now three times heavier mist, and she had to reinforce it with more chakra. Sasuke's Sharingan had finally activated, but it did him little good at the moment. Gaara and Kakashi were both losing their offensive edge as the fight wore on. All five of them realized this must end soon or it would end badly.

Without warning, there was a sound like a chain saw and all of Haku's ice mirrors were destroyed except for the one he stood in by a straw hat with sharp blades extending from its rim. The hat circled around and was caught by its owner, Naruto, who rose up from the end of the bridge on the air and landed on the very edge. With a simple finger movement, Zabuza's blade was stopped mid-slice by a chakra string, and Haku was pulled from his mirror and dragged across the bridge. The two ninja stared in shock as Naruto snapped his fingers and a set of armor made of pure chakra wrapped around him. He turned to the Hyuuga, and spoke in an altered voice.

"_This is how the technique is used Hanabi. Watch and learn from the master."_ Zabuza and Haku both lunged towards him, but he punched the bridge, and a slab of stone lifted up, hitting Zabuza in the stomach, while the crane swung its hook around and caught Haku's kimono, throwing him across the bridge. Naruto began punching, chopping, and kicking the air, sending waves of chakra outwards towards the two ninja. He delivered strike after strike, until they both fell to the ground, covered in shallow wounds.

Naruto dissipated the armor and walked over to Zabuza, intent on talking him out of attacking them any longer. However, the Demon of the Bloody Mist jumped to his feet and stabbed his sword. Naruto flipped over the blade, shaking his head as he did so, and stabbed the two samurai swords upwards, charging them with lightning chakra… straight into Haku's heart and stomach. Zabuza laughed as the boy crumbled to the ground.

"That's a good tool Haku." He chuckled. Naruto scowled and stabbed both of the blades into Zabuza's ears and into his brain, killing him instantly. Naruto had just enough time to seal the corpse away before someone at the end of the bridge began to clap as the mist cleared away.

"Very good, very good." Gato said as he and his fifty samurai stepped forward. "Now I don't have to waste time killing that fool." The small man moved to the back of the group and snapped. "Kill them all quickly."

The samurai rushed forward, only for a dome of ice mirrors to appear around them. Haku, holding his left side, appeared in the mirrors and began to rain down kunai and shuriken. The samurai were slaughtered. The mirrors fell apart, and Naruto barely caught Haku in time as he fell backwards, unconscious. He tsked at the sight of the massacred bodies, but pushed the disappointment away with the thought of the other samurai he had in his possession.

"Kakashi, Gaara," he called out as Gato was wrapped in a cocoon of sand. "I'm going to heal this boy okay? Here," he said, throwing a scroll containing the deeds to Wave and all the companies Gato owned to Tazuna, "use this to bring back your country, okay?" he never waited for an answer, instead opting to Shunshin away to the house, where he began to pour his chakra into Haku for the next three hours none stop. At the end of the third hour, Haku's eyes opened up and he stared back at Naruto.

"Naruto… is that you?" he asked in a weak voice. Fear suddenly gripped him as he watched Naruto's hand snake inside his cloak to his waist. There was a click and Haku closed his eyes as the arm flew back out.

_CRUCNH!_

Haku opened his eyes in disbelief as Naruto began to chew on the Pocky. "You should be okay. Just rest here a few hours will you?" Haku nodded as Naruto continued to chew on the Pocky stick. "I'll have to sneak you out of this place inside one of my puppets to get you into Konoha. Once we're there I can finish up your healing and you can be on your merry way." Naruto said as he wrapped the wounds in bandages.

"Why are you healing me?" Haku asked as Naruto bit into the bandage, tearing it.

"Because you shouldn't be killed so pointlessly Haku. You have great potential you could give to someone."

"You mean be a tool again, this time for you?" Haku asked in a hollow voice. Naruto shook his head.

"No, you only become my tool if you die by my hand. I meant as a friend Haku." And with that, Naruto got up and left.

(Time Skip)

Two days later, Naruto finished healing Haku in Konoha. As Haku leaned up, Naruto came into his room with a box. "I have a choice for you Haku. You can either leave Konoha, go explore, get stronger, or you can stay here with me and Gaara and become a personal ninja to the Hokage." He said, opening up the box. Inside was a leaf headband with pale blue cloth and the Konoha symbol inside of a snow flake, with icicles hanging from it.

"You mean, I can stay here with you?" Naruto nodded his head. Haku's answer was to reach forward and take the headband. He tied it around his forehead and fell backwards onto the pillow.

--

Well that's the end of chapter four. I hope you liked it. I wasn't sure how to do this whole thing really. But I did the best I could without copying someone else's ideas.


	5. Making of the Ninja

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

**--**

**Chapter Five: Making of the Ninja**

Naruto wasn't used to having so many damn people around him! He felt like ripping his head off with all these women walking around, flirting with him, hitting on him, trying to sleep with him. You'd think a former sex slave wouldn't want to have sex every again, but obviously, they were addicted to it or something. There was devoted, and then there was just freaky! Luckily, Hato kept them away at most of the time. Otherwise he would have killed them. At the moment, he was underneath the compound, where he'd built a massive chamber full of parts and equipment to build his more… massive puppets.

Naruto came out of the compartment inside the one puppet within the room. It was a monstrous thing, a master piece, for which he created two thousand clones every day to work on it. At the rate it was going, it would be finished just in time for the Chuunin Exams final event. He smiled at the prospect as he left the chamber. He used the elevator to climb up to the original construction room, two floors combined into one, with five hundred clones working on building the pieces for his latest battle puppet, as well as the three new non-battle and the new long-range battle puppets series. He walked over to the center construct and took a shower, before getting dressed and heading to the Hokage's office.

He met Gaara and Haku along the way. Haku and Gaara had hit it off pretty well, but when Naruto showed the ice user the body of Zabuza, it didn't have the desired effect. Naruto expected him to either be happy the oppressor was gone, or to get mad and demand it was destroyed. However, Haku merely pointed out that it was ironic Zabuza became Naruto's new tool after using Haku as his for so long, before going back to his training.

The three ninja arrived at the council room, where they bowed to the council. The civilian half of the council hated Naruto, as well as the Hokage's old team mates, Danzo, and the Uchiha, but he didn't care. He was more worried about his puppet collection. "Ah, Naruto, Gaara, Haku, so good to see you again." The Hokage said in a voice he used just to get on the 'Naruto haters' nerves. "I have a new mission for you three. But you'll have to separate from each other."

The three team members glanced at each other. Naruto nodded to them before stepping forward slightly. "What would this mission's objective to be?"

"Well," Sarutobi said, "Several teams of Genin will be arriving soon for the Chuunin exams which are being held in Konoha this year. We simply need each of you to escort one of these teams here. Naruto, you will be going to Kumo to escort the Genin team they are entering."

Naruto considered this. He had a set of maps that detailed where prominent shinobi he could turn into puppets lived, and several of them were on the way to Kumo. "I will gladly accept the mission Lord Hokage."

"Haku," the Hokage said, turning to the newest member of the team, "I need you to go to the Land of Rice and escort a group of Sound Genin and their sensei. Do you accept?"

"I accept Lord Hokage." Haku said, without a moment's hesitation.

"And finally, Gaara, I need you to go to Suna to escort the children of the Kazekage, their teammate, their sensei, and the Kazekage himself."

Gaara's eyes narrowed. Sarutobi's grip on the scroll was so tight his knuckles had turned white. He didn't assign who went where, that was the council's doing. And naturally, they did something like this. "I will gladly accept." Gaara said, much to the shock of all in the room. "But only on the condition that if I am provoked, I cannot be held responsible for whatever may happen."

"Request granted Gaara. You are here by qualified to use lethal force if you deem it necessary." The Hokage stated as he threw the scroll to Naruto. "Be back within two weeks. Oh and I have word from Kakashi in Wave. It seems the village has already chosen a name for the bridge even though it isn't finished." The three man team waited on baited breath. "They are calling it the Great Naruto Bridge."

The blonde snorted before they exited the building. Naruto stopped at the complex to grab one of the finished puppets in his newest non-battle puppet series, a massive mole puppet the size of a wagon with four horses pulling it that civilians often used to transport goods, with a giant drill on the front. The back opened up and he could get inside. He unsealed it outside of the village and when he opened it, he revealed a complex computer array, with a comfortable looking chair in front of it. A mini-fridge was built in, and two screens, one for viewing what was going on outside of the transportation puppet, the other for watching TV, were attached to the wall in front of the screen.

"How is this a puppet and not a machine?" Haku asked as Naruto climbed in.

"It's powered by Earth and Fire chakra that was… borrowed from some… unknowing benefactors. The drill is powered by a seal set underneath it that pushes Wind chakra into it, spinning it. The Earth chakra makes the larger boulders move aside as well as the passage easier. The Fire chakra gives bursts of speed, or melts through rocks the Earth chakra can't move. I control its movements though, but I use the computer and its limited battery for when I need rest." He explained right before the top closed. "I'll see you in two weeks. I have to get several corpses and I won't be able to use this to get back. Good luck." He said through a speaker on the outside, right before the puppet dove into the earth beneath them.

"Gaara," Haku said as he and the Jinchuuriki began to separate. "Do you really intend to kill your family?"

"Only if I am provoked." He said. Then he disappeared down the road. Haku sighed before turning and dashing down the road leading to the Land of Rice.

(Scene Change)

Naruto surveyed the carnage before him. His puppets had made quick work of the village where five of his newest puppets were residing. Each of them had the ability to control an element with great skill, a Kekkei Genkai of legend, and with them, he wouldn't have to take elemental chakra from sleeping ninja. Of course he would have to make major repairs to all of puppets, and his chakra coils still burned from the amount of red chakra he had to draw on to kill them. But for now he had to wrap up business in this village. He moved to the last remaining building, the largest building in the village in fact. The Orphanage. He kicked open the door and entered.

The woman in charge of the orphans had died, when one of the men's attacks had missed and ripped her heart out. So now, thirty orphans were left without a care taker. Naruto, being an orphan, couldn't stand this. So, he focused most of his chakra into a single clone, so it would last a whole week before dispersing. As the clone looked around, he was talking to the orphans.

"Hello there little boys and girls." He said in a happy voice. The orphans came out of hiding and gathered around him. "I'm sorry about all this; I know you probably want to stay here."

"No, we don't." a small boy said. "The people were always mean to us. We hate it here."

Naruto smiled at the boy. "Well, you don't have to worry about that. You see, I live in the village of Konoha, and I own a GIANT house. And my brother here," he said, gesturing to the clone, "is going to take you back to the house, so you can live there. There are lots of people there who will take care of you. Would you like that?"

The orphans nodded and Naruto stood up, still smiling. "Well that's good." He said. "I'm a ninja, and I'm on a mission, so I have to stay away from the house for two weeks, but when I get back, I'll make sure I bring back enough money to get each of you a new wardrobe, toys, you each get your own room. I'll get you whatever you want." The orphans yelled in excitement as Naruto left, leaving his clone to take care of them. He climbed into the transportation puppet, casting a Genjutsu over the carnage outside, and left, leaving his clone to take the kids back.

(Scene Change)

Haku was watching the men carefully. He was still wearing his girl clothes, and the bandits were surrounding him, thinking he was a girl, wanting to rape him. To either side of him was forest, behind the bandits was mountains, and behind him was a lake. He would make these fools pay.

"Hey boys, looks like we got ourselves a new toy."

"Can't wait to play with it all night long."

"Let's get too it, I'm getting impatient."

"Come here girly, we won't hurt you."

"Much." The bandits laughed at the joke. Haku snorted before back flipping twenty feet and landing on the water.

"The girl's a ninja?!" the leader shouted.

"Yes I am a ninja." Haku said as he ran through hand seals. "And I'm not a girl." A second later, a massive pillar of water rose up into the air behind Haku and arced over him, swallowing the men. Haku froze the water, and the men inside it. He jumped over them, racing towards the mountains, only stopping to snap and watch in satisfaction as the orb of water containing the men exploded into thousands of shards.

(Scene Change)

Gaara hated the desert. That's a weird thing for a container of Shukaku, but it was true. The desert reminded him of his mother, his uncle, and his father. It was a dreadful place for him. One night, he was walking down the road when a pack of coyotes appeared. They circled him, snarling, but he just kept walking. As the first coyote jumped forward, Gaara raised his hand and the sand of the desert rose up, forming Shukaku's arm, and crushed the coyote. He swirled the sand around him, obliterating the animals with a brutality fit for his tenant. As he walked down the road a few minutes later, an idea occurred to him, a way to scare Suna as payback for what they did to him, and as a reminder to what could happen one day.

As day broke, the village was in a stage ten alert. Because, marching towards them on the horizon was the Shukaku no Ichibi. The very demon they had sealed into the Kazekage's son thirteen years ago.

(Scene Change)

Naruto patted the scroll at his side gleefully. Inside were two of Kumo's most valuable possessions. The village's forbidden scroll and the legendary Mountain Lion Summoning contract. Of course, his four companions didn't know about this little find. After all, they were a full day's run from the village already.

"So," the leader of the team, Yugito Nii, and the Jinchuuriki for the two tailed cat, the Nibi, said suddenly, "You're really a Jinchuuriki as well?"

Naruto nodded, studying the girl. She was dressed in a pair of black ninja pants, with a gray shirt on. Her blonde hair was tied into a ponytail going down her back. "I contain the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Or Fluffers, as I like to call him."

Suddenly, the team's sensei, Killer bee, Jinchuuriki to the eight tailed Ushi-oni, a giant ox with eight octopus tentacles, fell on the ground laughing.

"What's so funny Bee?" Naruto asked, his voice laced with malice.

"I'm sorry." He said as he climbed back to his feet. "Bu it's not every day you hear someone call the greatest demon and most fearsome of the Bijuu Fluffers!" he fell back over, laughing and rolling on the ground.

Naruto sighed. Somehow, he knew that this was going to be a long journey.

(Scene Change)

Haku bowed to the three Genin and their sensei. "Hello, my name is Haku. I will be escorting you to Konoha."

"Yeah, whatever." One of the team members, a spiky haired kid with tubes in his arms that could fire concentrated blasts of sound, as Haku had already found out, said dismissively. His sensei smacked him on the back of the head.

"Show some respect fool. The Hokage has seen fit to send one of his personal ninja to collect you. Don't make a bad impression!" the man hissed. He was dressed in normal Jounin clothes, with his black hair tied into a ponytail down his back. His skin was very pale, but not to pale, meaning he most likely worked in the shadows a lot. Haku was very suspicious of these people. And that would in the end make this a very long journey.

(Scene Change)

The Kazekage stared at the massive form of the Shukaku heading towards the village, the sirens wailing behind him. His robes fluttered in the wind and his Kage hat had blown off, but he wasn't worried about that. What he was staring at was what was on the head of the creature. It was one of the personal ninja of the Hokage, and his son, Gaara. "Am I finally worthy of you father?!" he yelled, loud enough for all of the village to hear. "Have I finally proven to you how useful I could have been?! Proved that you were wrong to throw me away like a broken blade?!"

The Kazekage drew his signature weapon, a staff with two menacing spear heads on each end that could shoot out on long cables and have Wind chakra focused through them, allowing them to tear through anything. He rushed forward, using the extendable cables to climb up one of the Shukaku legs. Spikes shot out of the leg, smaller versions of the legs extended, trying to swallow him whole, but somehow he managed to break through all of these, finally reaching the top.

He and Gaara stared at each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move. In the end, it was the Kazekage who did it first. "Gaara," he said, spinning the weapon and planting it in the nose of the monstrous creation. "My youngest son. I am truly sorry."

"Sorry that you let the Konoha shinobi take me away, that you let me grow powerful, that I was born at all? Like I give a flying shit what you think. As far as I'm concerned, you can go to hell." Gaara snapped and the weapon the Kazekage had so boldly set aside was sucked under the sand. Sand erupted up from all sides and engulfed the Kazekage in a sphere of sand, much like a massive pimple on the face of the sand demon. Gaara began to squeeze his hand closed, when the sand exploded outwards.

A miniature cyclone spun around his father, ripping apart the sand that came close to him, as well as levitating him in the air. "Let me finish Gaara. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I never told you that I love you my son."

(Scene Change)

Naruto had one last stop to make before they returned to Konoha, and he let the team he was escorting know this. "Why do we have to stop at this village?" asked Yugito, who Naruto had quickly found out was as curious as any cat.

"There is a man here who has something I want and need. I'm simply going to take it from him by any means necessary." Naruto explained as he searched the faces of the crowd. His contact had told him that the fool would be around here some place. _Ah, here he is, putting on a show like an idiot._

The green haired man was dressed in the Jounin garbs of the hidden Rain village. He was escorting three Genin to the Chuunin exams, his Genin teams obviously, but he wasn't being discreet. He was fending off a massive brute of a man with what Naruto came to get: the legendary sword of the Nidaime Hokage, the Raijin no Ken. The blade was bright yellow, made of pure electricity. The Nidaime had used it to increase the strength of his water attacks.

Naruto unsealed Mizuki, turning the man into his demon form. He sent a large chakra pulse into the puppet, and vines shot out, racing through the air above the crowd and stabbing through the brute and the Jounin holding the blade. The vines lifted both up into the air and brought them both to Naruto. He took the Raijin out of the Jounin's hand before cutting off his head and sealing it away. He was a missing-nin of Konoha after all, and Naruto could use the money. Then he had the vines toss the bodies into the air before the blonde sent a massive stream of fire into the sky, burning the bodies to ashes.

"Okay." He said, turning to the group of ninja he was escorting while shoving the Raijin into his pocket. "Shall we get moving then?"

(Scene Change)

Haku hated this mission. It was official. The Genin were attacking him with rapid, unorganized attacks, which scrutinized and weakened each other. Not only that, but even though Haku had told them he was an ice user, they had decided to attack him by a massive lake of all places. So he was circling in the air high above them on a platform of ice. The Genin were sending attacks his way, but none were reaching him. Finally, the kid with the tubes in his arms, Zaku, pointed the barrels to the ground and blasted himself into the air with a burst of sound. He flew towards Haku at an amazing speed, but the ice user simply jumped backwards. What he didn't expect, was for Zaku to pass him in height and point his barrels towards him.

Haku could see the massive burst of sound building up in his palms. Thinking quickly, he pulled up as much water as he could from the lake below, blocking the attack. Zaku began to descend, thinking he'd hit Haku, only for the boy to come flying towards him. On the head of a massive ice dragon!!!

(Scene Change)

Gaara's hold on the sand began to weaken. How many times had he dreamed of hearing his father say those words? How many times had he drifted off into day dreams, thinking of reuniting with his family. And here was his chance. As he lowered himself and his father to the ground, the Shukaku fell apart, creating a massive pile of sand that quickly blew away. Gaara walked into the village with his father, who wanted him to tell him everything that had happened since the two years he had been gone.

As he proceeded through the village, he met an elderly woman whom he knew very well in the sense of reputation. She was short, with gray hair tied in a bun, dressed in the clothes of a very respected elder. This was Lady Chiyo, the one who had sealed the Shukaku into him all those years ago. She was also one of Naruto's idols, being the grandmother and teacher of Sasori.

"Yes, I have heard of the child." She said when Gaara asked about Naruto. "What of him?"

Gaara considered what he was about to ask carefully, before finally asking, "Would you come to Konoha and train him in the more advance forms of puppetry?"

(Scene change)

Two weeks had passed quickly. Haku had beaten the shit out of the sound Genin until they followed his orders. Naruto had five new powerful puppets, several valuable pieces of equipment that would aid him in the construction of his later puppets, and Gaara was reunited with his family, also bringing back one of Naruto's idols. When they met at the crossroad, Naruto had dropped to his knees in front of the woman.

"Lady Chiyo, I am an aspiring puppeteer, and I would be incredibly honored if you would teach me. I am respectful, as well as diligent. If you take me under your wing, I will not disappoint you."

The old woman tapped her chin a few times before nodding. "Show me all of your puppets." Naruto nodded before unsealing Quick Silver, the two Uchiha, the two Hyuuga, the two Kaguya, Mizuki, the sealing series, the mole puppet, Desolation, Retribution, and Genocide. She examined each one of the normal puppets, but when she saw the human puppets, she stared at him in shock. "How do you know how to create these things?"

"I found the training room of your grandson." He said honestly. "I learned a great deal, but I need more advance instruction to become the best puppeteer in the world." Chiyo nodded slowly before looking at all of the puppets again, this time with a more critical eye. She nodded her head as he sealed them back up.

"You are quite good at creating interesting puppets. But most of them rely on the ruthless power. You use elemental chakra a lot, as well as showing most, if not all, of your puppet's weapons quickly. But these are your older puppets, or your first of a series. Do you have a sketch pad with the plans for your other, more complex puppets?"

She and Naruto began walking together towards the compound. The older puppeteer was flipping through the sketch pads Naruto had given and making hand gesture while pointing out several things to the blonde. Whatever she was saying obviously pleased Naruto, because he was actually _smiling!_ The sight freaked out several civilians because they ran off screaming in random directions.

(Scene Change)

Naruto was showing Lady Chiyo the massive constructs in the underground chamber. She was marveling at the complexity of the puppet, as well as the way he intended to control it once it was activated. "When will this be done?" the woman asked as they rode up the elevator, watching the thousands of clones working diligently.

"Two days before the Chuunin Exams finals at the most. Why do you ask?" the blonde inquired as he bent down to help a clone with a particularly difficult project.

"No wonder, it just seemed like such an undertaking would last longer." She said. "After all, you told me it took you four years to perfect Genocide."

"Yes, but that was mainly because I was doing it all by myself, without the help of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, which I didn't know at the time, and I had to find suppliers who would sell me the best quality parts and not ask question and usually they had to be imported so I had to save up a lot of money." He explained as he scribbled down a couple of things for his clones to consider with the transportation puppets.

He took Chiyo through the puppets the rest of the day, answering questions, asking his own, going into detail on each puppet. Then they came to his most ground breaking puppet design of all, one far behind the schedule he had set of for it in fact. "Naruto… why are you attempting something like this?" Chiyo asked as she stared at the designs.

"Well, all the best puppeteers in history have made some kind of ground breaking movement. You made puppets that can use gears to deliver messages, as well as developing a way to control humans like puppets. Sasori found a way to make humans into puppets and still retain their chakra. This is my project. But I need a more advance grasp of seals before I can properly finish it."

As he ran her through each and every step of each and every project, Chiyo couldn't help but think of Sasori and the way he used to be, before he defected from the village.

Then they came upon Naruto's prized piece of armor. It was small, fitting inside her hand. She opened it up and was surprised to see nothing but a storage seal. She reached down to touch it, making Naruto's eyes widen, but before he could say anything, she had focused chakra into it and the seal's content was expelled. A massive scroll with a seal running around all the edges appeared. It was filled with hundreds of different seals. Protection seals, chakra seals, conversion seals, attack seals, expelling seals, deflecting seals, and around the edge was a combination of an anchoring and fusing seal, allowing the massive scroll's content to work from within the tiny storage seal. Naruto quickly shoved it back into the seal though before she could properly examine it, exhaling in relief.

"Be more careful Lady Chiyo. It's booby-trapped so that the scroll explodes fifteen seconds after being exposed to air." He said, handing her back the device. She looked at the seals around the edge, as well as the diagram of the seals he was going to add to it later on, the function of the object, a piece so crucial the whole device would be rendered useless without it, and a single word written under the phrase _application?_

That single word was _Tsunade_.

"What do you need with Tsunade?" she asked as she gently set the piece of puppet armor on the ground.

"The installation will be incredibly dangerous, and will require amazing medical skill. Tsunade is the only person with enough skill to do the application, and even she might get it wrong. But this is the only thing I can think of to control all of my puppets at once without doing something as crazy as turning myself into a human puppet. I intend to seek her out after the Chuunin Exams."

(Scene Change)

A week later, Team Seven returned back from Wave. Naruto was surprised to say the least when Hanabi arrived on his door step that night, with her sister Hinata and her cousin Neji.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked the Hyuuga.

"Yeah, you can dumb ass!" Hanabi yelled. "Since it's all your fault, we're going to be living with you for now on!"

Naruto rubbed his temples. He already had over eighty people living with him. If they moved in he would have to buy more of the surrounding apartment buildings and… wait, why are they moving in?

"Why are you moving in?"

"Well…" Hanabi crossed her arms and tapped her foot in concentration. Then she launched into an explanation.

(Flashback)

Hanabi was standing before the entire Hyuuga clan. She had told her father that she had learned a style of Hyuuga fighting that would rock the clan to its core. What she hadn't realized was that he was in a council meeting at the time. Now every Hyuuga was being ordered to watch her demonstrate. She glared at her cousin Neji, who smiled superiorly as the Jounin referee ordered them to begin.

Neji lunged forward and try to deliver a palm strike, but instead of flesh, his palm hit a shield… made entirely of chakra! Hanabi swung her other arm around, which had a chakra katana on the end, and tried to swipe at her cousin, but he nimbly stepped back, avoiding each strike. Hanabi lunged forward, forming chakra into every chakra node and shifting it into the desired shape. She flew through the air, a massive charka sword forming around her as she spun. Neji dropped into a stance that shocked most, if not all, of the clan.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!" he yelled as the ground beneath him turned into a green and black yin and yang sign. His hands flew as he called out his attacks, and each time Hanabi's chakra sword would flicker for a moment and loose some of its substance.

Hanabi skidded to a stop and jumped forward, onto a beam, and up onto the ceiling, which she ran across, straight towards Neji. She jumped down in front of him, spinning as she did so. "Eight Trigrams: Chakra Ray Shuriken Rotation!"

The dome of chakra surrounded her as she fell towards Neji, who had a similar surprise up his sleeve. "Eight Trigrams: Rotation!" he yelled back, forming the same ball around himself. The two orbs connected with each other, only Hanabi's was more deadly, sending out shuriken made of chakra in every direction. The two prodigies were sent away from each other as the two chakras collided. Before they could go at it again, Hiashi appeared between them.

"Enough, both of you." He turned to Hanabi first. "Where did you learn the technique of the First Hyuuga?"

"I… learned it from Naruto Uzumaki." She said quietly.

"And you," he said, turning to Neji, "Who taught you the Sixty-Four Palms?"

"I figured it out myself!" Neji barked. Normally he would never do this, but his little cousin had just humiliated him. In front of the whole damn clan!

"Hiashi." The oldest elder on the council said. "You know the punishment for such crimes."

Hiashi lowered his head and nodded. "Hanabi, Neji, you are both here by banished from the clan."

"WHAT?!"

"F-f-father, d-don't you think y-you're being a b-bit unfair?" Hinata asked.

Hiashi's eyes narrowed. "Are you questioning my judgment girl?"

"N-no, I was just saying─"

"Well if you think I'm being unfair, how about this? You are banished as well. Pack your things and be gone within the hour. And Neji, your Caged Bird Seal will be removed. Be in the sealing chamber in five minutes."

(End Flashback)

"So it's my fault you didn't heed a warning I gave you?" Naruto asked Hanabi. The Hyuuga ground her teeth before pushing him to the side.

"We are either moving in, or painting '_Naruto was here_' in neon orange letters on the Hokage Monument."

She and Naruto locked gazes for a second, before he opened up the door and let them in. Honestly it surprised them when they found out Naruto had let the former sex slaves he had freed from the Kaguya live with him, and then let thirty orphans move in with him. And of course the sheer amount of puppets running around the place was astronomical.

"I only have two rules." Naruto told them. "One, never enter the south or east tower, I make seals and puppets in these towers, and two," he turned to them with a glare so full of malicious intent and horrible ideas he could use for punishment for breaking the most sacred rule in his house hold, "Don't. EVER! Touch my ramen or my ramen flavored Pocky."

The three other Genin face planted as Naruto walked away calmly.

(Scene Change)

Gaara was sipping from a cup of tea when they sat down on either side of him. One girl, with four pigtails and a massive fan on her back, and one boy, dressed in a black outfit with a wrapped bundle, obviously a puppet, tied to his back. These were his siblings, Kankuro and Temari.

"Damn it." Kankuro hissed as he also ordered a glass of tea. "Everyone in the damn village instantly knew it was a puppet on my back thanks to that Uzumaki kid. I'm going to have to rely on more than just surprise. Luckily I have a great puppet." He said happily.

"No, you don't." Gaara said, shocking his older brother. "Naruto was taught, indirectly, by Sasori of the Red Sand. He's been creating original puppets since he was eight. He has several revolutionary projects happen at this very instant inside his puppet building tower. Even I would be hard pressed to kill him if I was really trying to do so."

Temari and Kankuro looked at each other. This would be a perfect way to learn all about their future opponent in the Chuunin Exams.

"Well, no one knew what my fan was for. I use it to amplify my Wind Style jutsu. No way the brat could meet me in that area."

"He has five Ginta human puppets, one of which controls wind." he said, referring to the legendary clan that had just recently started to make a comeback when five children were born with their infamous bloodline. "Not only that, but he created a relatively simply jutsu that allows him to form the air beneath him into a solid state, clamp it around his legs to keep himself stationary, and fly at his will. You two will most likely be massacred if you try to face him at all, because he is like no ordinary puppeteer."

"He uses Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and low level Genjutsu if he's bored, to wipe away anyone who gets to close. Of course, if I was to elaborate what I've been saying, instead of just give you the gist, it would take hours, days even. But I must be off." He said, disappearing in a swirl of sand and leaving forty empty cusp of tea for his brother and sister to pay for.

(Scene Change)

Itachi arrived back in Konoha at that exact moment. And as soon as he did, he reported three things to the council.

"Honorable Council Members, I have three grave pieces of news." He spoke. Every eye in the council was looking at him, every ear listening intently. "First, my father has sent me to Kiri recently to hire Mei and Fuubi Terumi to assassinate Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara of the Sand." The council started to mutter. While they didn't like the two Jinchuuriki, they were both feared and admired, and gave the village better standing. If they were wiped out by assassins from Kiri, the village would look weak.

"Second, I met Lord Jiraiya on my travels back. I told me to let you know he has found out that Orochimaru and his Sound village, as well as Kumo, have formed an alliance and are going to try to destroy Konoha during the final phases of the Chuunin Exams." Now the council was talking and yelling moderately at each other. However, before it escalated, Itachi piped in his plan. "But, I have made a very detailed map of all the bandit camps within two hundred miles of Konoha. There are hundreds of them, and I believe Naruto Uzumaki can capture them, turn them into human puppets and use them to defend the wall of Konoha the same way he defends his own compound." The council members nodded, seeing this as a smart solution.

"And finally, and most grave of all. Orochimaru has had one of his spies warn my father. And after the invasion, if it fails, which it will if we plan correctly, my entire clan is planning a coup to destroy the council." The sound of the yells of anger echoed in the large chamber, until Itachi raised a finger in the air. "But, I will gladly destroy the ninja of the clan. I will not hurt the civilians or the children. But I will need help on this. From the Hokage's three personal ninja."

(Scene Change)

Haku was in the underground lake that provided the water for Naruto's compound. It also supplied the electricity, as well as a variety of other things. One of those was being the perfect practice spot for Haku's new jutsu. He stepped off of the water, panting but smiling, and snapped his fingers. Instantaneously, the top layer of water, which he had turned to ice, exploded back into water and fell into the lake. He pulled some of the water up and washed himself off by pulling himself through a wall of water, before pushing the impurities from the water and going back up stairs.

What he found was a spectacle. Naruto had the two massive scrolls containing all the supplies he had taken from Gato's base out, with all the girls, the Hyuuga, and orphans gathered around. He unrolled the scroll and had everyone move back before unsealing the pile, piece by piece. He had several smaller storage scrolls waiting to put weapons into, which he did. There were so many weapons in fact, that he had to send one of the girls out to buy twenty more and there was barely enough space. He handed the one hundred and forty six scrolls to a number of clones, which took them to the weapons tower.

Then he got to bodies. He was brutal when it came to the kid's training, so he had shown them how he made human puppets. A few of them got sick afterwards, but they held out until the end. So when Naruto began unsealing the bodies of dead ninja, they didn't care. "Well, well, well, the bodies of several lost Kekkei Genkai holders, the bodies of the founder of several smaller but prominent villages, and enough heads to turn in to buy all of the slums and turn them into a personal fortress. Gato must have paid several fortunes getting these." He said, the glee evident in his eyes. Then he unsealed the remaining sixteen scrolls, all bigger than most of the orphans.

"Naruto," one of the orphans, Hachi, asked, "What are those things? All of the grown-ups are looking at them like it's an endless supply of ramen or something."

Naruto smiled. He liked Hachi because he was as addicted to ramen as he was. The boy had short orange hair (another admirable quality) and was dressed in black pants and a white shirt that had Naruto's signature swirl on the front. "These are summoning contracts Hachi, very rare ones, for several powerful animals. And a ninja can become very famous when he has a summoning contract." Naruto blinked for a second. Wasn't Hachi just in front of him.

He turned and smiled as the boy dug through the scrolls, until he finally resurfaced with one in hand yelling, "I call this one!"

Naruto went over to him and picked it up, his eyebrows raising up slightly. "This is the Canine contract. It lets you summon any type of Canine, if you have enough chakra, which means dogs, wolves, foxes, hyena, anything in the canine family." Naruto flipped it over carefully. "Mind if I use it to Hachi?"

"Of course not Naruto. You're my big brother! I'll share it with you when ever I want." He said, wrapping his arms around Naruto's waist. He stared at the boy in shock. He patted him on the back and returned the hug. The girls all let out a group '_ahh!_' as Naruto picked up the little kid and carried him back to the other children.

He put the canine contract to the side for the moment and focused on the other fifteen scrolls. That means that each contract could be signed by four girls, max, for it to be even. "Alright, we have bulls, cats, ravens, weasels, boars, bears, bats, blue jays, mockingbirds, raccoons, tigers, scorpions, crows, vultures, and of course, moth. I also… obtained the mountain lion contract recently. Choose the contract you want, if you want one at all, but no more than four people per scroll." He said, picking up the Canine scroll before opening his book on how to use the summoning technique. He unrolled it and bit his thumb, signing his name in blood before leaving a handprint on the space below it. Then he unrolled the scroll till he found the hand seals for this species summoning.

Naruto as happy with the results of his Wave adventure. Now all he had to do was find a safe place for the scroll until Hachi was old enough to use it. He smiled before pushing the scroll into the seal holding Kyuubi. The seal would hang on the wall in his mindscape, escaping all harm until ready to use again. Naruto patted Hachi once more on the head before going back to his puppet building.

(Scene Change)

Orochimaru was tapping his fingers on the desk in the hotel room assigned to him and his three Genin to stay in during the Chuunin Exams. Apparently, there was a leak in his security somewhere, because Jiraiya had known about the invasion. He was confident his agents could keep the old pervert out of the village long enough to stop him from telling the Hokage in time to slow him down.

"Lord Orochimaru." One of his subordinates said, bowing both of his heads to him. Sakon and Ukon were two of Orochimaru's most elite ninja team members, or one member since they were fused together most of the time. "We have managed to get a message to Kabuto telling him to try and find out the village's defense plans for the invasion, but nothing has come back yet."

"Thank you Sakon. You are dismissed." Orochimaru said quietly before the two headed ninja disappeared in a flash of light. It had come to his attention that the Uchiha clan was planning a coup, and that the council wanted to destroy the clan. Naruto Uzumaki would help Itachi with the attack, and most likely turn the ninja into his puppets, which Orochimaru couldn't have. So how could he stop them? Move the invasion up?

No that wouldn't work. Hire assassins? No, that had already been proven useless. So there were only two things to do now. Either kill Naruto… or plant the curse seal on him.

(Scene Change)

Naruto, Gaara, and Haku were sitting in front of the Hokage, with an enrollment sheet for the Chuunin Exams in each of their hands. "Well, it seems that technically you three are still Genin, so I have to enroll you in the Chuunin Exams. I'll be considered your sensei, so if and when you pass the second part, I will spend a month training the three of you."

The three Genin stared at each other in shock. "But I thought once you became a Kage, you couldn't take on a Genin team?" Haku asked.

"Of course not. My team and I were taught by the Nidaime after all. What would give you that idea?"

Haku simply shrugged his shoulders in embarrassment.

"Well, fill out those forms and take them to room 301 by noon tomorrow. I expect great things from you three. Now go prepare. Treat this as a five day mission."

"Yes sir, Lord Hokage!" they all yelled. Naruto exploded into golden fire, Gaara disappeared in a miniature sand storm, and Haku suddenly froze solid and exploded into thousands of ice crystals, each with his image in them.

(Next Day)

Naruto and his team walked down the hallway of the academy. They stared at the massive crowd of students gathering around a room, with two boys, obviously Izumo and Koketsu, blocking the door. What the fools didn't realize was that the sign saying 301 was actually room 201. They walked past, starting to head up the doors, when someone yelled "You're all idiots. It's a Genjutsu."

Naruto, Gaara, and Haku turned to see Hanabi Hyuuga smacking her pink haired teammate in the back of the head and Sasuke glaring daggers at her. "Moron!" Hanabi yelled. "It was supposed to root out the weaklings!" Sakura had the dignity to blush as the ninja outside the door began to head for the stairs, only for a three clones of Naruto, Haku, and Gaara each appeared, blocking the entrance.

"You fools will only get killed in the Chuunin exams if you can't see through a simple Genjutsu, or count for that reason. Only those who see through the Genjutsu get to go up the stairs. Koketsu, Izumo," the first Naruto clone said, "put the Genjutsu back up, and over us as well. Anyone who tries to get passed will have their throats slit." The cloned drew two kunai and glared at the crowd.

"Ha!" a sixteen year old, much taller than Naruto, Genin yelled. "A simple illusion won't stop me!" and he ran forward. The Shadow Clone sighed before jumping forward, his hands flashing. The Genin fell over dead, his throat slit.

"I'm a Jounin level clone. Substantial. Luckily, this was a clone as well." The boy went up in two puffs of smoke, one revealing him to be a second clone of Naruto, the other dispersing him. The Genin that hadn't seen through the Genjutsu groaned as people went up the stairs, but they weren't allowed to.

The real Naruto, Gaara, and Haku were just walking up the stairs with Sasuke, Sakura, and Hanabi, when they met Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji. The two teams were waiting outside the door, talking to each other.

"Hey, the gangs all here. Oh and who's this delicate flower?" Kiba asked as he ogled Haku.

"This is Haku. I didn't know you were gay Kiba." Naruto answer.

"What?! I'm not gay!"

"Well, you showed interest in Haku, who is a guy. That usually implies you're gay." Kiba fell back in repulsion as his classmates laughed at him. "Speaking of which, Haku, go change into your new clothes." Naruto ordered. The ice user was not happy about it, but complies all the same.

They spent the next twenty minutes talking, waiting for Haku to come back. When he finally did, he was dressed in pair of black pants with multiple pockets, a blue ninja shirt with fishnet underneath, and he had seals painted on his palms for storage. His hair was tied down a ponytail going down his back.

"Why'd you paint storage seals on your hand?" Shino asked Haku.

"I'm an ice user, but I'm not at the level where I can draw moisture from the air, so I carry large amounts inside these waterproof seals Naruto made for me." Naruto's former classmates laughed.

"Naruto, make seals? Yeah right!" Kiba barked.

"You need to be quiet Kiba. Let me help you." Naruto's hands flashed and he pulled out a pot of ink and a brush. He painted a seal on Kiba's face and sent chakra into it. Kiba moved his jaw, trying to get his mouth up. He started pulling on his lip, but it wouldn't budge. "It's an hour long seal. Don't even try."

"Naruto, Haku, we should go in now." Gaara said. The blonde and brunette nodded before going into the classroom. Hundreds of Genin were inside. As soon as they entered, every eye in the room moved to them. Naruto closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, a massive wave of killer intent flooded the room, making the other Genin freeze up.

"What are you weaklings looking at?" he growled. The other Genin tore their eyes away.

"Who are you calling a weakling?!" someone yelled. A Genin from the Village Hidden in the Moon, one of the few actually hidden, hidden villages, with a Genjutsu cast on so it only appeared with the light of the moon, jumped into the air. He had black clothing, with spiky brown hair. In his hand was a staff, with a large saw on one end, and a normal spear tip on the end. The boy spun the staff around, setting it ablaze. Naruto snapped and without warning, two clones appeared in the air on either side of him and exploded. The boy was blown back across the room in an instant.

"That was an Exploding Shadow Clone Technique. You are lucky I'm in a good mood, or I would have used a Poison Shadow Clone and killed you." Naruto stated before the three of them sat down at a table. A moment later, a Jounin walked out, dressed in a black trench coat and a bandana over his head.

"Alright, settle down. The first test is about to begin."

(Scene Change)

Sasori nodded to his spy before sending him on his way. So, his hidden room in Suna had been found, and a boy was using the information in it to create a puppet army. This would be interesting to see. Sasori also knew that Orochimaru was planning on attacking Konoha soon. An evil idea occurred to him, a way to get back at the snake Sannin. He quickly jotted down a note and summoned a messenger bird to take it to the boy.

He would travel to Konoha and watch as Orochimaru was destroyed.

(Scene Change)

Naruto snorted at the easiness of the test. By simply putting the glasses down and sending out a small fly puppet with the ocular seal on he passed. He used a miniscule amount of chakra so the string was invisible. He sent the fly to spy on Sakura, and copied down her answers before pulling the fly back to him and sealing it away.

Ibiki wasn't fooled; after all, he had fought puppeteers before. It was an amazing technique really, but it left the puppeteer open for attacks if they got past the puppet. Accord to the Hokage, Naruto was going to overcome this weakness with some of the things he was creating. Yes, this boy had the making of the ninja, the ninja that would put his life on the line to save an innocent, to protect a weakened comrade, to protect his village, and to serve his leader.

"Alright, times up. Time for the final question." All ears were tuned in to Ibiki. "There are rules to the question. You can choose not to take it. And you can come back next year and try again. Or, you can choose to take the question. However, should you get the question wrong, you will be removed from your village's ninja roster, your chakra will be sealed away, and you will have your memory wiped clean."

Several of the teams stood up and left then and there. Most of them in fact. However, there was still seventy-two ninja still in the room. Ibiki smiled.

"Congratulations, you all pass."

Before anyone could say anything, Naruto suddenly dropped to the ground, yelling out, "HIT THE DECK!" as he went. Gaara wrapped himself fin a cocoon of sand, while Haku dove beneath the desk. A massive ball of cloth suddenly exploded through the window. It expanded, and two kunai pinned the banner to the ceiling. A woman, dressed in a tan mini-skirt and jacket, with a fishnet shirt on, smiled at them.

"Hey there, I'm Anko Mitarashi, and I'm the prompter of the second part of the Chuunin Exams, the Forest of Death Challenge!"

Several ninja gasped at the name alone, but Naruto wasn't worried. In fact he was happy. The forest held several large animals, and he could use them to make puppets out of. Not only that, but he had seen several powerful looking Genin he was itching to turn into human puppets. This was why he had summoned the smallest of the seals series puppets, a one inch tall thing that made the more detailed seals. He had it go around the room, painting tracking seals on the Genin he wanted to take out, before returning it to him.

After Anko had explained they had to get one type each of the two scrolls the instructors were giving out, they had been given a piece of paper that made it so the death of any Genin wasn't the liability of Konoha. After his entire team had exchange them, they had been given an earth scroll. A Chuunin came and escorted them to Gate Thirteen, where Naruto preceded to activate the seals he had placed. Each of the applicants felt a tingle go down their spines, most likely do to fact that they were about to 'become Chuunin' and who wouldn't be?

As Anko's voice blared over the intercom, Naruto took out one of his ramen flavored Pocky and chewed on it for luck. "Well, in thirty seconds the gate will open and you will be let in. So I want to give you brats one last piece of advice. And you know what it is? It's simply… don't die, or I'll have to clean up the mess! NOW GO!"

The Chuunin went through the fluid motion of opening up the chain locking the gate and kicking open the door in half a second. Instantly, the Genin team rushed in. Naruto creating a legion of clones, which dispersed in several directions, going after their intended targets.

"Who are we going after Naruto?" Haku asked after they had killed a giant tiger and a humongous scorpion right after that.

"We're going after a group of Kuso ninja." He said as he slapped preservation seals on the bodies and sealed them away. They started to move, when a wind up puppet bird landed at Naruto's feet. He took the note from its beak before channeling chakra into it, sending back to its owner. He read the note, and his eyebrows rose several inches as he did.

"What is it?"

"It's a note from Sasori of the Red Sand." Gaara and Haku stared at him in amazement. "One of his spies has informed him that Orochimaru has infiltrated the exams and plans to invade the village with the help of Kumo during the final round. And that he will be coming to Konoha at the same time to see how much of a challenge I truly pose to him." He folded up the note and sealed it away before he began moving again.

"Orochimaru has the distinct characteristic of having an extremely long tongue. And so did the very Kuso ninja we are tracking. Looks like we got a fight on our hands."

(Scene Change)

Sasuke staggered back as the Kuso ninja laughed. "You are strong little Uchiha. But not strong enough!" her neck extended outwards, shooting towards Sasuke. The Kuso ninja had a gleeful gleam in his eye as he bit down… into wood. He withdrew his neck to find a puppet standing in front of him. It was a side project puppet Naruto had finished the day before, called Black Fang.

The thing was a defense puppet, with a thick frame filled with hundreds of reinforcement seals. It had two human eyes, with what looked like eight massive blackened fangs sprouting from its back. It didn't have a face, just a massive mouth full of sharp teeth. It was dressed in a black cloak that covered a lot of its body. The Kuso ninja scowled at it as its owner descended to the branch Sasuke was standing on. He sealed the creation away before glaring at the ninja.

"Orochimaru of the Sannin. You will make a wonderful addition to my collection." Suddenly, all ten fingers twitched. The two Uchiha puppets, Quick Silver, Genocide, Retribution, Desolation, Mizuki, Yin and Yong, and Zabuza rushed through the trees, ready to impale the Sannin, but the man jumped away. Naruto pulled all ten of the puppets back to his side.

"Well, well, well, this is interesting." Orochimaru said, peeling off the face of the Kuso ninja. "How did you know it was me?"

"Sasori of the Red Sand warned me in advance. And the whole long tongue thing earlier was a big hint. ANBU and the Hokage should be here any second now."

Orochimaru's eyes widened as he looked up in the clouds. A massive snake had been formed in the sky, with a leaf symbol with a slash symbol next to it. Haku snapped and the shape solidified. "The benefits of being an ice user. Water is easy to manipulate." The snake Sannin glared at them before biting his thumb.

"Well then, I leave you with this present. Summoning Jutsu!" he disappeared as four mammoth snakes, one with three heads, one with two heads, and two with one head, shot through a massive cloud of smoke.

"Gaara, kill them, but preserve the bodies." Naruto ordered. Sand erupted from the ground, engulfing the snakes, flowing into their noses and mouths and any other opening on their bodies, flooding their bodies with sand and killing them. As Gaara withdrew the sand and he and Haku went through the process of sending a massive cloud of steam through it to purify the Jinchuuriki's weapon, Naruto put a preservation seal, as well as a binding seal to keep the summons grounded to earth, onto the snakes, before sealing them away. He could turn humans and animals into puppets. What about summons?

Naruto picked up the Heaven scroll Orochimaru had so kindly left for them, Naruto looked around. He felt a strange feeling seeing Hanabi Hyuuga lying on the ground, obvious under some kind of poisonous effect, and went over, flashing through a set of familiar hand signs to a poison removing jutsu. A purplish green fluid flowed out of her body and into a jar in Naruto's hand. He used a medical jutsu to heal her before he looked at his team, his eyes full of seriousness.

"The clones are waiting for us with the bodies outside of the tower. Let's get moving shall we?"

(Scene Change)

Orochimaru resurfaced from the Tree Melding Jutsu. How had Sasori warned the brat? How had his former partner known about the invasion? But before he could contemplate it, he was surrounded by ANBU, Jiraiya, Anko, Kakashi, and the Sandaime.

"I let you escape all those years ago Orochimaru. Don't expect for me to do it again!" the ninja all rushed forward, but a blast of charka sent them reeling back. Orochimaru hissed, and by hissed, I mean _hissed!_ He had turned into a massive white snake, made up of smaller white snakes, and as he curled around a tree, the Konoha ninja stared at him in repulsion.

"Whatssss wrong sssensssei?" he asked with mock confusion. Then he attacked. He swallowed two ANBU whole, but spit them out a moment later, not liking the taste. He rushed forward, but he was met with a problem: Anko.

His former apprentice was standing atop a massive white and green snake he recognized as Oroyu, Manda's, the snake contract boss summons, younger brother. "What a pity to see such a promising shinobi diminished to this." The snake said. Right before it lunged. He and Orochimaru tangled with each other, snapping, biting, hitting with their tails. Anko assailed him with kunai, but they did little.

Finally, Orochimaru managed to break free and shot through the forests, shouting, "Another day Konoha filth! Another day!"

"Damn it, he escaped again!" Jiraiya yelled, slamming a Rasengan into the closest tree. The Sandaime smiled.

"Don't worry, we'll be seeing him again soon enough. We just have to wait is all."

"And why is that Lord Hokage?" a weasel masked ANBU asked.

"Because, he wants your younger brother Itachi, and Naruto has become a major problem for him. He won't let leave without trying to deal with our local blonde haired puppeteer." The Sandaime said, right before he Shunshinned away.

(Scene Change)

The Raikage was not enjoying the plan. He didn't want to attack Konoha, as Sarutobi was an old friend, but he didn't want an army of snakes destroying his village either. There had to be a middle, correct? If only he could find it…

A was not a patient man, so having to wait for the Snake Sannin was annoying. Very, very, very, annoying, especially when he wanted to go get drunk.

Finally the man arrived in his office. A couldn't hide the smile when he noticed the man was slightly weakened. He shoved it away and locked gazes with the other ninja.

"Well?"

"It seems we have been found out A. Are you sure your ninja can handle this?"

A's chest puffed out. "Of course they can!" Orochimaru nodded.

"Okay. Now, about our plan. I need to be close to Sarutobi, as close as you will get, so…" he lunged forward, but A was expecting this and dodged, before punching the man in the face, focusing every bit of lightning chakra he had into the punch. The Sannin hissed before jumping out the window. A ran over to it and began to shout.

"RUN SNAKE SANNIN! KUMO WILL NOT HELP YOU IN THIS BATTLE! FIND A NEW ALLY!" he yelled, loud enough for everyone in the village to here. Lightning attacks flashed through the air as the Sannin fled through the village and was seen by several shinobi.

(Scene Change)

Naruto reached the tower and ordered the attendants to summon the Hokage, and that it involved Orochimaru. Hearing the name, they dashed off, and five minutes later, Sarutobi was there.

"What is Naruto?" he asked. Naruto handed him Sasori's note and let the aged Hokage read over it. "Oh, this is grave news indeed." He looked at Naruto. "What do you intend to do about Sasori?"

Naruto shrugged. "I would love for him to teach me, but if I can't do that, I'll simply destroy him and take all of his puppets. But I'll have to install my puppet armor first, and I need Tsunade, or a medic of her caliber, to do so, because I'm attaching it to my spinal synapse."

Sarutobi's eyes widened. "How powerful is it?"

"It will allow me to control as many puppets as I want, protect myself in a close-quarters fight, poison my enemies, and operate one of my more powerful puppets we will need in the coming invasion."

Sarutobi nodded. "I will summon her. And may I ask what this construct is?" Naruto pulled out the three sketch pads detailing it. Sarutobi's eyes widened again, and he began to laugh. "Now that is incredible." He handed the sketch pad back to Naruto. "We should be going. The preliminaries are beginning as we speak."

Naruto nodded, and there disappeared further into the tower.

Far away Orochimaru quivered in rage at the loss of Kumo as an ally.

Farther away, Sasori finished tinkering with his puppets and began to move towards Konoha.

Much further away, Tsunade was given a tip of a brand new massive casino opening up outside of Konoha.

Closer, Jiraiya was standing in front of the memorial stone, staring at the names '_Minato Namikaze_' and '_Kushina Uzumaki_' on the memorial stone, before turning away and walking back to the village.

(End)

I know it was a long chapter, and I'm trying to make them longer. But I hope you all like it. Please review.

And its team for a new segment called _Name that clan!!_

Clan name: Ginta

Information: The Ginta were once the fiercest clan to room the five lands. They had a very rare Kekkei Genkai, rarer than even the Dead Bone Pulse of the Kaguya clan. The wielders of the Kekkei Genkai however have absolute control over on particular element. The legends say the clan gained their power from the five Elementals, who saw fit to give the ability to those that would one day impact the world.

Hashimaru and Tobirama Senju, along with several other babies, in a Orochimaru level display of cruelty, were injected with the DNA of killed Ginta with the ability. Of the five hundred babies, only the two future Hokages would survive the process. Haku's clan is a separate, diluted clan, made by two members who had control over water and wind. As generations went by, the DNA weakened.

Even those that didn't have the Kekkei Genkai were considered powerful in their own right. Elemental jutsu came naturally to them, and by practicing certain rituals, they could gain minor control over nature. So, if Itachi Uchiha were to go up against a Ginta and used the Fireball Jutsu, the Ginta could turn the fireball around and have it follow Itachi until it hit him or its chakra supply was drained.


	6. Demon on Puppet Strings

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

**--**

**I don't own Naruto, or anything involving it, except for the things I make up. Just thought you should know.**

**--**

**Chapter Six: Mark of the Demon**

The hall was massive, with a large set of wooden hands forming a ram hand sign and a balcony lining the wall. The remaining teams all waited patiently. Naruto and his team had finished on the first day, but they had decided to go hunt down animals Naruto could use to make security puppets or armor. They had just returned back from one of said trips when they were told that it was time for the preliminaries to start. Only a few team shad made it through.

Team Hokage, as Naruto, Gaara, and Haku were officially called, the team from Sound, Kuma and Suna, the rookie nine, Team Nine, a group of Genin that had waited a year before taking the Chuunin Exams, and a group of four year failures, who's leader, a boy named Kabuto, quit soon after the prelims started.

"Alright," the proctor, a sickly looking man named Hayate, said, "We have put your names into a system and they will be randomly shuffled on the board behind me." He told them as a section of the wall slid away to reveal a large screen. "Begin the shuffling process!" he yelled, before going into a couching spasm.

The names shuffled through, flashing at a speed that made them impossible to make out individually. Finally, the first two names slowed, revealing the first two fighters.

**Choji Akimichi**

**VS**

**Jin **Kyuuketsuki

Choji begrudgingly walked down the steps to the center of the hall, where he met his opponent, the male member of the Kuma team. The boy was tall, almost six foot, dressed entirely in gray. He had on a grey cloak that was tattered around the edge, and he had his headband covering his face. "Fighters ready? BEGIN!"

Choji performed a jutsu that turned him in a massive ball and shot towards Jin. Jin reached up and tore off the headband, letting loose with a blood curdling roar. Inside of his mouth was a nasty, dead looking tongue, and two sharp looking rows of venom drenched teeth. His eyes were cold and gray, and his fingers were ragged claws. Wind chakra turned the ragged cloak into a set of wings that lifted the boy of the ground. Several of the ninja screamed as he let loose with a poisonous cloud of yellow fog.

"Yugito, what exactly is Jin?" Naruto asked the blonde who was only a few feet away from him. She smiled brightly at the question.

"Well, a few years back, we found him outside of the village. He told us his name and wrote it down for us. When it's written in kanji, Kyuuketsuki means vampire. And the reason for that is because of the missing-nin, Orochimaru." Several sets of ears perked up at the name. "He used Jin in one of his experiments to retain his youth, just because he had a fear of liver spots."

Across the room, the Sound Jounin, actually Orochimaru in disguise had to use all of his self control to stop himself from ripping Yugito apart.

"He turned Jin into a creature that had to feed off of his opponent's blood and chakra to grow powerful. He has several abilities granted to him by the experiment but look at him. It was not worth it."

Naruto stared down at the fight. Jin had his fist pulled back and let loose with a punch that sent Choji spiraling backwards into the way. The vampire ninja shot forward, and bit into Choji's arm. He began to suck on the blood from the wound, but Killer Bee appeared and pulled him back. He took a deep breath before spitting on the wound. The spit sizzled and the wound closed up, not even leaving a scar.

"Winner of the first round, Jin Kyuuketsuki!" Hayate declared as the medics took Choji away. "Roll the names again!"

The shuffling sequence ran through again. Finally, it stopped, and a collective gasp filled the room.

**Naruto Uzumaki**

**VS**

**Neji Hyuuga.**

Both of the Genin jumped down to the floor and stared at each other.

"I will not hold back Naruto. Even if I am living with you."

"I don't expect you to Neji." Naruto snapped and the friction made a flame appeared on the end of each finger. "Besides, I wanted to try out this technique."

"BEGIN!"

Neji jumped into the air as Naruto punched the ground. A massive slab of rock flew into the air as the flames encased Naruto's entire arm. He punched the slab, sending it up towards Neji, while at the same time igniting it. Neji's eyes widened but he quickly used a mid-air Rotation to stop the attack.

When he landed, Naruto was summoning one of the animal puppets from the forest. In a massive blast of smoke, a giant snake curled around Naruto. It was bigger than the entire room, circling the edge twice. Orochimaru's eyes widened. '_How did that brat turn one of my summons into a puppet?! Does that mean he has the others as puppets as well?_'

The snake lunged out at Neji, who simply ducked underneath it and jumped onto the ceiling. He flashed through hand signs as chakra began to form on his hands. The snake curled around and several of its scales opened up. Hundreds of kunai launched into the air as a massive disk of spinning chakra that oddly resembled a power saw blade formed above/beneath Neji, blocking the attack. As the snake hissed, Neji fell, flipping over as he did.

"Destructo Disc!" the brunette yelled, letting loose with the disk of chakra that had shrunken down considerably. Naruto pulled the snake back as quickly as possible, barely dodging the attack, which obliterated the floor where it landed. Naruto pulled the snake back, sealing it up as he did. He unrolled a second scroll and looked for a particular kanji that meant Stinger.

A massive scorpion, the largest one they had found, in the center of a massive colony of them, appeared. It had been near impossible to kill, until Gaara had wrapped it up in sand, Haku had frozen it, and Naruto had stabbed it with its own tail. But the thing still struggled. Even as Naruto sliced it open it and began to remove the organs, it kept fighting, until he had ripped out the monsters heart, lungs, and brain. He had hollowed it out, added several reinforcement seals, and put in several powerful weapons. Part of the back opened up, and Naruto jumped in.

Instantly, the tail rushed through the air and almost impaled Neji. The Hyuuga dodged strikes just like this, nearly getting grazed several times, backing up as he went. The scorpion had to move forward to attack him, and as Neji hit wall, he smirked. The tail came back to lunge… and the Destructo Disc shot up, removing the tail. Naruto exited the puppet and sealed it away, intending to repair it later.

"Time to end this Neji." Naruto said. Before Neji could reply, the blonde started to form something around itself. It was a massive silhouette, animal like, crouching behind Naruto, with two slitted eyes, and nine waving tails. The Chakra Kyuubi jumped forward, slamming Neji against the wall, knocking him out in the process.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!" Hayate yelled, the first to snap out of the stupor. It was amazing what Naruto could do with those puppets of his. As he began to move towards the stairs, it happened. The Sound Jounin jumped over the railing, tearing off his face as he did, revealing Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin extended his neck outwards, straight towards Naruto, who was too shocked to react. He bit into Naruto's neck, and the blonde yelled in pain. The Snake Sannin began to retreat as a mark formed. It was a miniature version of the complex Shiki Fuuin seal keeping the Kyuubi sealed. The Snake Sannin took advantage of the shock in the room to exit building, Naruto trailing after him.

He unsealed his three most powerful puppets, the three Ginta puppets. Hakku, who was dressed in all red, red shirt, red pants, red jacket, with his red hair cut short, was surrounded by flames that danced and conformed to Naruto's will. Yuuku was dressed entirely in blue, with his blue hair spike up, as three pillars of water danced around him. Zansatsu, the final Ginta, was dressed in a pair of white pants, a gray shirt, and a long cloak with a massive tornado swirling around it. He rode a massive tornado like it was nothing. Naruto and the three puppets rushed after the Sannin, followed by the Hokage and several ANBU, as Hayate tried to continue the contest.

(Scene Change)

Naruto rushed after Orochimaru, funneling the Kyuubi's chakra into the seal, trying as hard as he could to neutralize it. That was when the message came in.

"**Boy, that snake bastard put part of his soul in that seal. I'm fighting it, but I will need help to destroy it! DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH! WAIT, KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM LITTLE KYUUBI! AHHHHH!"**

Naruto sped up after the snake ninja, who was beginning to slow. He turned, smiling evilly, only to see Naruto with the three Ginta puppets rushing through the air towards him. Hakku sent a massive pillar of fire towards Orochimaru, while Yuuku sent out three dragons of water to intercept him. Zansatsu jumped through the air and summoned a cyclone that reached over the tree tops. The three attacks raced towards the Sannin, each trying to destroy the man.

Orochimaru flashed through hand signs and jumped down, sinking into the earth and out of the forests as the three attacks collided and exploded. Naruto fell to his knees, breathing heavily as he sealed up the three puppets. He arched his back and fell on his hands as the seal began pulse and slitted eye pattern flowed out from it, covering his upper body. He howled in pain as he was drawn into his mindscape.

(Scene Change)

Naruto charged down the sewer hallways towards the massive red light. When he arrived in the center chamber, he saw Orochimaru jumping around, dodging blasts from the Kyuubi as the demon fired chakra from the tips of its tails. Naruto brought his hand up and began to concentrate. Being inside his mindscape, he should be able to control the surrounding.

There was a massive explosion of smoke as the Kyuubi was released from its cage, a collar around his throat. All of Naruto's puppets, as well as the finished version of the construct beneath the apartment, appeared, and rushed towards the snake, reforming if they were destroyed. And finally, Naruto let out a mighty roar as he turned himself into a massive golden Kyuubi. The piece of Orochimaru's soul never stood a chance. It lasted for hours, as the soul was able to dodge most of their strikes, but eventually, Naruto speared him through the chest with one of his tails and slammed the body into the ground until it disintegrated.

(Scene Change)

Naruto gasped as he resurfaced from his mindscape. Jiraiya was next to him, watching as the seals shrunk back into Naruto's neck. "What happened kid?"

"Orochimaru put a piece of his soul inside of the seal, and the Kyuubi and I managed to hold it off, even remove it for a short amount of time, so for a while I should have control over the seal, but if I'm not careful, the snake could take control again. Mind putting a suppression seal on it for me?"

Jiraiya smirked and knocked Naruto out. The blonde slumped to the side as the Sannin Shunshinned away with him to a chamber large enough for the procedure. He made several Shadow Clones and had them paint a seal array as he began to paint the necessary seals on Naruto's body. Thirty minutes later, Jiraiya crossed his hands into a seal, and yelled, "SEAL!!" a massive pulse of light expelled from Naruto as the ink around them shot across the floor and up Naruto's body, to the seal on his neck.

"Will it hold Jiraiya?" Sarutobi asked as he stepped out of the shadows.

"I believe so Sensei. It will block the seal only as long as the boy chooses not to rely on it, and he doesn't seem like the kind to rely on others to give him strength when he could gain it himself." Sarutobi nodded before looking at the boy he cared about, his adopted grandson.

He groaned and sat up, much to the shock of the two adults. "Hey, where am I?" he asked as pulled his clothes over to him with chakra strings.

"You are two floors below the preliminaries. If you hurry you can make it in time to pick a number and find out who you are facing." Sarutobi explained. Naruto nodded before exploding into flames and disappearing. "I knew he had high reserves, but to be able to wake up moments after having an A-level seal put on him is a testament to him and the seal Minato designed." The old Kage said.

The two men stared off into space, remembering the boy who had given up his life, wishing that his son would be considered a hero. Too bad no one honored that wish, or things would have ended differently.

(Scene Change)

Naruto landed at the end of the line of Genin, much to the shock of the other contestants. The blonde stared down the line, counting, and figuring out who was a problem.

Counting him, twelve people had made it. Gaara, Haku, Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Gaara's siblings, Yugito Nii, a boy named Rock Lee, Hanabi, and finally, Jin. Each of them would draw a number from a hat to decide who would face who. As they took their number, they called it out for all to hear.

"Eight." Gaara said.

"Three." Said Shikamaru.

"Seven." Said Sakura.

"One." Yugito called.

"Eleven." Hanabi said.

"Four." Said, Temari, Gaara's sister.

"Twelve." Said Kankuro, Gaara's brother.

"Two." Naruto informed them.

"Five." Haku said.

"Nine." Sasuke said.

"Six." Jin hissed.

"Ten my youthful companions!" Lee yelled, pumping his fists in the air.

Ibiki, the first proctor, appeared and wrote down the numbers as each was called, before writing them name down on a board.

**Yugito Nii Vs Naruto Uzumaki**

**Shikamaru Nara Vs Temari**

**Haku Vs Jin Kyuuketsuki**

**Sakura Haruno Vs Gaara**

**Sasuke Vs Rock Lee**

**Hanabi Hyuuga Vs Kankuro**

The Hokage appeared and cleared his throats.

"My young friends, allow me to tell you the true purpose of the Chuunin Exams. Long ago, the ninja villages were in a constant war, so they came up with a test that showed who had the strongest Genin, and thus the strongest future ninja. This kept war from breaking out and at the same time, flooded the village with the most winners with missions. Very important people, such as Kages, village leaders, and Daimyo, come to see the Exams. And to give them time to get here, we are giving each of you a one month training period. Take this time to get strong and study your opponent. You are dismissed."

(Scene Change)

Naruto nodded, retracting the chakra strings from the piece of the construct, and let his clones move it back into position. He moved over to where Lady Chiyo was standing, pulling clones out of dangerous situations and calling out instructions.

"Lady Chiyo, its time I tell you a secret I have kept from you for the past three days I have been back from the second part of the exams. While I was going through the test, I received a letter from Sasori of the Red Sand, warning me of an invasion by Orochimaru and Kuma, and recently, I got a second letter, saying Kuma had pulled out and now Orochimaru was allying them with Mist." Chiyo's eyes widened with each word as Naruto reached into his hip pouch and put the notes on the desk. "I am sorry." Was all he said before he disappeared.

(Scene Change)

Naruto pushed the final mechanism into a puppet series. He smiled as a pulse of sound filled the room. He lifted each puppet up, before beginning to work on them. They were the Sound Spectrum series, and each used an instrument to cause damage physically, or by casting a Genjutsu. There was a violin, a guitar, a flute, a clarinet, a drum, a trumpet, a harp, a piano, a trombone, and a saxophone. After a few hours he got them to work together, and moved to the roof. "Orchestra Style: Ghosts of Love." He whispered while forming hand seals and moving the puppets together, causing them to begin playing together.

The bustling sounds of Konoha ceased as the haunting melody flowed through the air, filling the head of each person with thoughts of loved ones long gone, even from when they were a baby and didn't remember. Laughter, tears, fights, conversations, precious moments, betrayals, the jutsu brought them all to the top of the person's mind. The song floated out through the village for a full ten minutes before Naruto finally ended it. He had done it for a reason.

Locked behind his eyes, set permanently into his head, was the image of his mother, the famed Kushina Uzumaki, rocking him and a girl in her arms, with his father, the fourth Hokage, leaning over next to them with another girl in his arms.

(Scene Change)

The Hokage stared at the Genin before him with admiration. Each of them dropped the jutsu they were working on as the Hokage nodded to them. "Well, the three of you are doing very well, so I've decided that each of you should get a special reward." The old man pulled out three scrolls and threw them to Haku. "After several long hours of searching through the memories of ninja who had fought your kinsmen, I have compiled a list of jutsu your clan has."

Jiraiya of the Sannin appeared, grinning, with several pots of ink and brushes. "For Gaara, I will have Jiraiya here fix your seal so the Shukaku has no hold over you any longer. If you will just go with him." The red head nodded before following Jiraiya out of the clearing.

"And for Naruto, I have something special." He said, pulling out five manila envelopes stacked on top of each other. He handed them to Naruto, who opened them up and stared at the information within. "I thought it was time you had this."

The blonde nodded solemnly as the Hokage Shunshinned away. "What's in the envelopes?" Haku asked, putting away the scrolls. He wanted to pour over them, to learn every jutsu within, but he couldn't, because Naruto had a contemplating, confused face on his face.

Naruto was never confused.

"It's information on me, my parents, and my two sisters." He said, walking off into the forest. He jumped into a tree, and pulled out the papers within the first folder, labeled _'Kushina Uzumaki'_ and began to read to himself.

_Name: Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, Konoha's Bloody Whirlpool_

_Status: Retired, in hiding_

_Facts: Last surviving member of the famed clan from Whirlpool Country, which is currently a piece of Earth Country. Wife of the late Minato Namikaze. Mother of Tayuya (Missing), Karin (Missing), and Naruto (Deceased _**(Hokage's Note: Still alive, file writer fired after this file was finished)**_) Uzumaki-Namikaze. Under the protection of Jiraiya of the Sannin. Famed for her Hydra Summoning contract, as well as the Whirlpool of Blood sword style. She opted to leave Naruto and the village so she could raise Karin and Tayuya correctly. Below is a list of her abilities and her current hiding place._

Naruto shifted to the next page, studying the map of how to get to her, memorizing the traps, the security routes, the blue prints of the house. He put the folders away for later, and pulled out the next set of files.

_Name: Tayuya Uzumaki-Namikaze_

_Status: Missing, kidnapped, Orochimaru suspected_

_Facts: Little is known about this child, except that she seemed to have a love of the music produced by flutes, and an aptitude for Genjutsu. She had the green eyes of her mother, as well as the red hair. At the age of three, she was kidnapped between movements of safe houses, presumably by Orochimaru of the Sannin, A-rank missing-nin of Konoha. A report detailing the capture of the child as well as her sister Karin follows this. See picture of child below._

Naruto slid the files away once again, and pulled the file on Karin.

_Name: Karin Uzumaki-Namikaze_

_Status: Missing, kidnapped, Orochimaru suspected_

_Facts: Little is known about this child, except that she was said to have the Kekkei Genkai of the Namikaze clan, which allows whoever bit her to suck on her chakra and heal them, and she was a suspected chakra sensor. She had the red hair of her mother, as well as red eyes of her grandfather on her father's side. At the age of three, she was kidnapped between movements of safe houses, presumably by Orochimaru of the Sannin, A-rank missing-nin of Konoha. A report detailing the capture of the child as well as her sister Tayuya follows this. See picture of child below._

Naruto opened the next envelope, the one containing the information on his father, Minato Namikaze.

_Name: Minato Namikaze, Konoha's Yellow Flash_

_Status: Deceased, sacrificed himself to seal away Kyuubi_

_Facts: The Fourth Hokage, also known as Konoha's Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, sacrificed his life to seal the Kyuubi no Kitsune into his first born son, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, but the sealing failed, and the Kyuubi took over Naruto's body. (Edit; the Kyuubi didn't take over Naruto's body, but was sealed inside the boy. File writer executed.) He grew famous in the Third Shinobi War when he created a technique that allowed him to teleport to a seal, which he placed on a kunai and gave to ninja to throw into battle, where he would appear and cause massive damage._

_He created a technique called the Rasengan, which is a spinning sphere of chakra, which can cause damage on a molecular level. The technique took him two-and-a-half years to complete, and requires three steps to be mastered first. High A-rank jutsu. Minato was the first shinobi to ever get a Flee on Sight order in the Bingo Book. More detailed report on following files._

Naruto put the file away and sealed it away with the first three to look over later. He opened the final folder. Inside were two versions of the opening report.

_Name: Naruto Uzumaki/ Uzumaki-Namikaze_

_Status: Deceased, possessed_

_Facts: Naruto's father, who he looked like, sacrificed his life to seal the nine-tailed fox, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, into him, but his seal was flawed. The Kyuubi possessed him and now he terrorizes the village, biding his time until he can become a ninja and learn to remove the seal and destroy the village._

_Foot note: Report invalid, writer executed_

_Name: Naruto Uzumaki/ Uzumaki-Namikaze_

_Status: Ninja, Genin_

_Facts: Naruto is feared around the village for his ability to turn humans into puppets and have them protect his compound. He is powerful, and is expected to either become the leader of the village one day, or destroy it completely. He is the personal ninja of the Hokage, and has several powerful human and non-human puppets. His two sisters, Tayuya and Karin, were abducted by Orochimaru. His mother is Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, Konoha's Bloody Whirlpool, and his father is Minato Namikaze, Konoha's Yellow Flash._

The report went on to detail his puppets, his abilities, his grades, and several other facts that were far too sensitive for Naruto to let exist, so he ripped them up, burned them, sealed the ashes away, sealed away those ashes, dropped that scroll into a lake, before using a jutsu to boil the lake away. He walked away as, not realizing a Root ANBU was cursing under his breath at the loss of such information.

(Scene Change)

Yugito swung her leg around and jumped back as the tree toppled to the ground. She panted for a second, before she straightened up and flipped backwards, dodging an electrified pencil. She landed on the ground and sent out a massive wave of black fire around them, while at the same time summoning up a legion of samurai soldiers. She used an Earth Style Jutsu to dive into the ground and move through the soil to find her teammate for this exercise, Jin. Her other teammate, Yuuri, the teams Genjutsu effort, would be working with Killer Bee.

She surfaced besides Jin, who was finishing up a set of seals. From his mouth flowed a river of darkness that blotted out the sunlight. Over the rush of the dark, she heard him mumble. "Forbidden Juts: Anti-matter Jutsu." The anti-matter flowed through the forest, cutting off the light, forming a dome of darkness. Jin pulled off covering off his face, and his eyes glowed slightly, letting him see through the darkness. The edge of Yugito's eyes glowed with black flames, giving her the same ability. As the two ninja crept through the darkness, a bolt of lightning exploded, temporarily illuminating the dome through the anti-matter. Yugito morphed into the flaming cat as her sensei flew at her in his two tailed form.

(Scene Change)

Sasuke's eyes widened at what his father was saying. He wanted them to rise up against the village and kill the Hokage after an invasion by the S-rank missing-nin Orochimaru. Instead of reporting the invasion to the Hokage, or even the council, they are going to use it to better themselves!

Sasuke was repulsed by the idea, but nodded his head enthusiastically as his father explained it to him. As soon as the meeting was over, Sasuke bolted out of the compound, heading towards the Hokage tower. He ran past the secretary and kicked the door down. The Hokage had opened his mouth to beginning speaking to Naruto, Gaara, and Haku, who had just arrived, when Sasuke ran in.

"Lord Hokage, I have terrible news."

"I'm sorry Sasuke, this is rather important. Could you please just wait outside?"

"The village is going to be invaded in the Chuunin Exam Finale! And after that, my clan is going to try a coup to take control of the village!"

Naruto, Haku, and Gaara all stared at him in shock, while the Hokage simply shook his head.

"I was just about to tell Team Hokage here the same thing. Your older brother warned us during the second exam." Sasuke's eyes widened and he fell back into a chair. "Now, as I was saying before Sasuke came in." the Hokage said, unrolling a map in front of them. "We knew about this for a while now. And we've come up with a plan. Naruto, we will need your help though. Marked on this map are hundreds of different bandit camps, each of which holds at least a hundred bandits. The village needs you; I need you, to go and kill each of these bandits, and turn them into human puppets. Then we want you to set up arrays like in your compound around the village to control these puppets."

"No doubt Orochimaru will try to attack me during the exams, so I need you to get to me as soon as possible and help drive him off. Once we've done that, we'll have to deal with the bigger threat: the summoning he intends to use to get through the wall, and of course the Jinchuuriki of Kiri and the Mizukage, Yagura. He holds within him the three tailed turtle-shark. You can handle him with your main construct if it comes out as planned."

"Haku, your roll in this is at the front lines, where you will help neutralize the attacks of the Mist ninja. Gaara, we need you in your final form, fighting off Yagura until Orochimaru is neutralized for good. Do you understand?"

"YES LORD HOKAGE!" they yelled, before disappearing.

Sarutobi turned and smiled. "Now, as for your part in all of this Sasuke."

(Scene Change)

Naruto stared at the construct before him. He was so close to being finished, he could taste it. But he wanted it done soon, so he could test out the different functions and master them. So he took a deep breath and began to draw on the chakra of the Kyuubi. The fox begrudgingly let it go, since Naruto had given him freedom from the cage, as well as made the mindscape a massive place for him to roam as he wanted.

Once he had three tails, Naruto made a hand seal and poured all of the fox's chakra into the Shadow Clone Jutsu. He fell to the ground, panting, and feeling tired. He stared at his hands in confusion. "So this is chakra exhaustion huh? He pulled out a stick of Pocky and began to chew as the ten thousand clones, all feral from the red chakra, shot through the air and began to work, moving the construction along quicker.

(Scene Change)

Kankuro finished training with his puppets, and sealed two of them away, while keeping out Crow. Temari folded up her fan and strapped it to her back. Together they walked away from the carnage they had caused. Senbon littered the ground, gouges were ripped in the earth, trees were toppled, and several black spots dotted the ground.

Kankuro pulled away from Temari though, as they got to the center of village. While Temari went to the hotel room, Kankuro went to the slums. He stared at the massive buildings, linked together by tunnels, with a large wall with several ballista and puppets dancing over the top. Several cameras swung back and forth, watched by one of the former slaves Naruto had freed. The only way in was to climb the wall, go through the door, or dig underneath.

Kankuro couldn't go through the door. Naruto would never let him in once he realized that Kankuro wanted to spy on his puppets. He couldn't dig under, since none of his puppets were designed for digging through dirt, so he would have to climb over the wall. In a blast of smoke, Salamander appeared, and Kabuto climbed inside. Instantly, the puppet started to climb up the wall and onto the top. It slammed down, causing a security puppet to be destroyed, activating the seals which caused all other puppets to rush to the destroyed puppets location. The salamander rushed down the wall and across the grounds, deploying its shield to deflect the attacks of puppets and the ballista.

Kankuro was almost at the entrance, when a massive pillar of sand shot up beneath him. A wave of water swallowed his puppet, and froze, trapping him within. Then the orb of ice was punched or kicked, Kankuro couldn't tell, and slammed into the wall. If it hadn't been for the shield, the puppet user would be dead.

The latch above him opened up and he was fiercely pulled out. A snake puppet slithered out of his capturer's, Naruto, sleeve and swirled up to him, hissing. Venom dripped from the teeth as the snake lunged, stopping an inch from the Sand Genin. Instead, the snake redirected its course and bit into a tree close to Kankuro. The tree instantly wilted, before catching on fire and blowing away in the wind.

The blonde pulled him closer and glared at him. "Listen to me amateur. Using a puppet created by someone else makes you weak. Only be creating your own puppet can you truly become a great puppeteer." And with that, the blonde swung the chakra strings around in a circle above his head, sending the makeup wearing boy over the wall and onto the edge of the slums.

(Scene Change)

Naruto, Hanabi, Neji, and Hinata spared together, slamming charka pulses into each other. Naruto and Hanabi were at an advantage, mainly because they could use the Chakra Ray Pulse variation, but Neji could use the Eight Trigrams One-Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms and Hinata had a technique she called Protection of the Eight Trigrams she was working on. Together, the four of them were causing the towers to rock back and forth just from the blasts of stray chakra.

Naruto pulled his fist back and punched the floor. Hundreds of spikes of chakra shot into the air, forcing the Hyuuga to attach to the ceiling. Naruto pulled all of his chakra into the center of his body, nearly blinding the Hyuuga. "It's time I show you the ultimate technique of the Chakra Ray Pulse." He said as he expelled the chakra and began to shift it into a new form.

Instantly, a massive demon appeared around him. It had samurai armor, with a skeletal left arm, which held its sword. The mouth was filled with fourteen sharp, triangle shaped teeth. Attacked to its back were two skeletal wings. Naruto floated in the center of the giant samurai, his eyes glowing with chakra. He swung his left arm, and the samurai swung his sword arm, and stabbed the ground, causing snakes of chakra to dive in and out of the floor, flying towards the three Hyuuga.

The cousins, grabbed onto each other wrists, with Neji in the center of them, and Hanabi and Hinata on the edge. As the girls jumped in the air, Neji began to spin, and as all three expelled their chakra, they yelled "_Eight Trigrams: Tri-Hyuuga Rotation!_"

The snakes collided with a massive Rotation and dispersed. Naruto flapped the skeletal wings, and several crescents of chakra slammed into the dome, sending the three Hyuuga flying backwards.

Naruto dropped to the ground, drawing the chakra back into himself. He walked over and smiled superiorly at the three other ninja. "That's why this is _my_ compound."

(Scene Change)

Naruto walked into the Hokage tower one morning, when there was only eighteen days left to train. He had gotten a note from a Shadow Clone of the Hokage, telling him to come to the tower at a particular time. And here he was, marching up the stairs towards the office. As reached the top floor, the secretary glared at him. "Go away Demon Brat. The Hokage will not see you today. He has people who actually matter in there."

She probably would have kept on ranting if Naruto hadn't planted a kunai in between her eyes. The corpse slumped back as Naruto opened the door, to find the Hokage talking to a blonde woman, with large breasts and pig tails, and a second woman with short black hair holding a pig.

"And speaking of Naruto." Sarutobi said, standing up. "This is your next patient."

The blonde looked him over carefully, with what was known as the 'medic's eye', circling him, checking muscle mass, running a hand through his hair, and several other annoying things.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked. Naruto's mind finally put the facts together, and he realized he was talking to Tsunade of the Sannin.

"Nothing is wrong with me, as much as the village." Naruto said, interrupting the Sandaime. "Orochimaru tends to attack and destroy it with the help of Kiri during the Chuunin exam finales. And I need you to install this so I can stop him." He pulled out the notebook containing the details on the operation and handed it to her. She scanned each page intently, flipping through them slowly, memorizing every word and picture on the pages. She nodded and handed the pad back to Naruto.

"Fuck you brat." She said, before turning to leave the office.

"What a pathetic excuse for a ninja." Naruto said. Tsunade froze in place. "I know about Dan and Nawaki. They died protecting the village, fighting for you and everyone else they loved. I just know they would be ashamed to here you openly scorning the village they gave their lives for."

Tsunade turned around, letting out a terrifying roar, and threw one of her legendary punches. Naruto raised a finger and caught the punch. The shockwave however, ripped up the floor boards. Naruto grabbed her wrist and spun around, pinning the arm behind her back. He pushed her to the ground and painted a seal on her palm. As soon as he touched it, her chakra began to flow into him, and her true form was revealed, a wrinkly old woman. The transformation spread up to her arm, before he apprentice shot forward, knocking him off and erasing the seal.

Naruto flipped across the office and in a blast of smoke unsealed the massive scorpion and snake as well as a giant tiger he had gotten from the Forest of Death. The puppets pushed up against the sealing, causing the wood to begin to crack. Naruto flashed through hand signs and stomped. The wall behind him exploded and he pulled the puppets out with him, yelling as he went, "Come on you miserable excuse for a wrinkled up version of a shinobi!"

Tsunade popped a soldier pill in her mouth and launched out after him. They dashed across town, each of them throwing an attack n at every chance. Naruto led her across the rooftops to the slums, where he jumped on top of a wall. He sealed away the puppets quickly and jumped up into the puppet tower. Tsunade followed him, her blind rage, stopping her from where she was going. Naruto landed on the elevator and activated it as Tsunade dove in. He dodged her attacks until the door opened up. He rolled backwards and she followed him, into the room full of thousands of Shadow Clones and the main construct.

She gazed up at the creation before her, her eyes wide in amazement.

"This is what I need the surgery for. I'll use the component to control this thing. I theorize I should have just enough time to recover and have a week to train with the construct. If we so it tomorrow."

"You're going to train with… that, in Konoha?" she asked, pointing at the hundreds of lifts, seals, compartments, clones, weapons, and internal gears.

"No, I intend to go to Suna to train. The Kazekage has already given me permission to do so. But I need that component, or else this will have all been for nothing."

Tsunade couldn't help but let the memories of her lover and little brother flood her mind. They would have wanted her to do it. "Okay kid, I'll do it. I just need to get the materials and prepare."

"I have the material you just need to prep the room. While you are doing that, I'm going to find that white haired 'super pervert' and get him to set up the last few seals. And of course I need to go get some new puppets I've been waiting weeks to get my hands on."

(Scene Change: Operating Room, Konoha Hospital, Next Day)

Naruto breathed in the gas, and felt himself slipping away. Tsunade waited until he was completely out, and the anesthesia had taken effect, before she formed a chakra scalpel and slit the skin covering his spinal column open. She picked up the component carefully. The top was a circular metal piece, with hollow tubes that let into the other piece Naruto's clones and Jiraiya were finishing. The bottom had needles that connected to the spinal column and allowed the device to run on Naruto's bioelectricity. Tubes extended from the seal, each with several seals painted into it by a _very_ small puppet. On the end of each was a needle as well.

She carefully took the hoses and pushed the needles into the chakra circulatory system. The seals within the tubes glowed brightly before dying down and she moved onto to attaching the device to Naruto's spinal membrane. But it was easy enough. She positioned it over the small of his back and the needles extended into the bone. She attached the other tubes to his spine and chakra circulatory system. She had to do each step incredibly slowly, so as not to make even the tiniest mistake.

Four hours later, she backed away and watched in awe as the red chakra flowed over the skin and healed in seamlessly. The only reminder that something was there were the five hollow tubes extending out of the skin. Jiraiya came in a moment later holding the second piece. It was circular, with several storage seals on the edge, with who knows what inside. The center seal held a simple storage seal that contained a scroll with several advanced seals that Naruto, Jiraiya, the Hokage, and Kakashi had spent several hours placing.

The piece of armor fit perfectly into place and the two teammates smiled at each other. An hour later, Naruto awoke. He went outside, much to Tsunade's chagrin and anger, and summoned every puppet in the compound, as well as unsealing all his normal puppets. The piece of miniature armor glowed and thousands of chakra strings shot out. Each of the puppets moved into a combat ready stance, before Naruto smiled and sent them back from where they came from.

He turned to Jiraiya with a serious look on his face. "Alright, time for the final step of this process. The use of the ultimate poison that no medic can heal."

"Oh," Tsunade asked, prepared to take on a challenge. "And what might that be?"

Naruto smiled to himself. "The youki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

(Scene Change)

The month was finally up and hundreds of dignitaries from different lands as well as the Land of Fire had come to see the finale. Since the exams were an open event, if a Kage wanted to go watch them, he was more than welcome to. But when the Mizukage and the Tsuchikage appeared unexpectedly, marking the first time in years since the five Kages had come together outside of a war council or summit.

"Well Sarutobi, it seems everyone is here except for your Jinchuuriki." The Mizukage, a Jinchuuriki himself, said matter-of-factly.

"Yes Yagura, I noticed. But you will soon come to find out that young Naruto has a flare for the dramatics. Ah, here he comes now."

Off in the distance, a star twinkled. Suddenly, a giant bird came streaking through the sky, propelled by what was obviously a huge amount of Wind chakra. The bird was twenty feet wide and bigger then a Hummer. And riding on the back of it was none other than Naruto.

The bird dive-bombed the massive dome where the exams were going to be held. As it reached the floor, it leveled out, just barely not crashing, and something slid off the back. As the monster flew higher in the air, the crowd stared in awe at Naruto, who was maneuvering the giant bird with chakra strings extending from his backs. The bird flew upwards, before doing a flip and rushing Naruto again. An inch from the blonde's face, it exploded into a cloud of smoke that obscured the field.

When the smoke cleared, Naruto was spinning a kunai on his fingers. He was dressed in a pair of baggy white pants, an orange shirt, and a dark orange cloak with black flames dancing around the bottom. Strapped diagonally across his back were two katana, and his scrolls containing his puppets were hanging from his waist.

The crowd stared at Naruto in shock, before exploding into cheers at the entrance. Naruto smiled slightly to himself as the proctor rolled his eyes. "Alright everybody, wave to the crowd, make them cheer, keep them occupied until Lord Hokage starts the exams."

Haku leaned in closer to Naruto. "Was that your main construct?"

Naruto smiled. "Nowhere near it."

(Kage Box)

"Well Yagura, I will make you a deal. I bet you my Monkey Summoning contract that Naruto will come out on top today, and by the time he is finished, even you will fear him." Sarutobi said calmly, sitting back down. He and Yagura had been standing a few inches away from each other, electricity arching between them. Now Sarutobi was seated, his arms crossed over his chest, and Yagura was staring at him in shock. The Jinchuuriki Kage smiled, showing his fang-like teeth.

"And if I lose?"

"Simply put, you will step down from your position and train my personal ninja in Water Style technique." The other Kages stared at Yagura waiting for his answer. The Mizukage stuck his hand out, and he and Sarutobi shook.

"I always did enjoy the taste of monkey, but they are so rare in Kiri." Yagura said, sitting back down.

"A, Onoki, Teigai (means air scythe just randomly made it up)," Sarutobi said, addressing the Raikage, the Tsuchikage, and the Kazekage by their first names. "Would you like in on this?"

The Kazekage, Teigai, nodded and pulled out a scroll. "I bet this scroll, which contains a very powerful Wind Style jutsu I created myself, that Naruto will be the hero of the day."

A, the Raikage, pulled out a scroll. "This contains a set of swords made from a special chakra conducting metal, three of them to be precise. I'm betting that Team Hokage as well as my own two Genin make Chuunin."

Onoki rubbed his mustache. "I bet this." He said, pulling a deed. "It's the deed to the country once known as Whirlpool. I bet that the blonde ninja will be revealed to be a flashy weakling."

Sarutobi smiled too himself. Looks like Naruto would be getting his own country. He already made it very clear he didn't want to stay in Konoha. This way he could keep a link to Konoha and Sarutobi.

The five Kages shook hands before the Hokage stood up and went to the edge of the Kage Box. "People of Konoha, feudal lords, daimyo, ninja, it's time. The contestants have had a month to train themselves up for this day. So, LET THE SEVENTY THIRD ANNUAL CHUUNIN EXMAS BEGIN!!"

The crowd exploded into cheers as the Hokage sat back in his chair. Near him, under the disguise of one of the Mizukage's guards, Orochimaru glared at the old man. Oh how he would enjoy watching the life leave that body as he drove his sword into the man's heart.

The proctor nodded and turned to Yugito and Naruto. "You two stay down here. The rest of you, go up to the stands." Once the other contestants had reached the viewing box, the proctor turned to the crowd. Naruto mentally smacked himself for not noticing it earlier. This was a new proctor. His name was Genma, and he was known for chewing a senbon. Something must have happened to Hayate during the month. "Alright, listen up, since both of you are Jinchuuriki, we ask that you not release your demon. If you can control its power, you may use it, but any releasing of the beast and you shall be disqualified and removed from the village."

Naruto and Yugito nodded and Genma jumped backwards onto the railing of the viewing box, which the two Genin took as a signal to begin. Naruto rushed forwards and tried to deliver a Gentle Fist strike, but Yugito spun over it and swung a kick out. Naruto ducked and swung his leg, taking Yugito's legs from out underneath her. She landed on her hands and did a reverse roll, dodging a katana stab. Flowing around the two blades were red chakra. Yugito's eyes widened as Naruto began to laugh evilly.

"Taste the power of the King of Demons, the most powerful of the Bijuu, FLUFFERS!"

Everyone in the crowd dead panned as a fox head formed between the two swords. "**I told you not to call me that you little brat!**"

"What's wrong with your name Fluffers? Don't you like it?"

"**If our life forces weren't linked I'd rip you to shreds you blonde moron!**"

"Would you prefer Fluffy? How about Precious? Or maybe Princess? Yeah, your new name is Princess."

"**I'D RATHER BE FLUFFERS!!!**"

Sarutobi was laughing harder than he'd ever laughed before in the Kage box. "Well, I knew Naruto is a lot of things," he said between laughs, "But a comedian is a new one to me."

As the demon and the blonde continued to argue, the crowd began to smile and laugh as well. Here was the boy they had hurt and cursed, pissing off the demon they feared and caused those things to happen to him. It was a sobering thought really. As they laughed, they realized how bad they had hurt Naruto for something completely out of his control, and they had made an assumption that was completely wrong about him.

Finally, Naruto pulled the two swords apart, dissipating the fox head with a yell of, "Talk to you later Fluffers!" and swung the blades. Two crescents of red energy slashed through the ground heading for Yugito, who punched the ground, causing a massive wall of skeletal bones to rise upwards into the air. "That is an interesting ability. The Nibi give it to you?"

As the wall lowered, Yugito smiled. "Yep, the Nibi has control over the dead." Naruto grimaced. This meant he couldn't use his once living puppets on her. Oh well, he had the newest ones he could use. And they would cause plenty of damage.

Naruto sheathed the swords, their purpose of finding out Yugito's defenses fulfilled, and began to flash through hand signs. He took a deep breath before yelling, "Wind Style: Dragon's Wings Jutsu!" A massive torrent of wind expelled itself from Naruto's mouth, forming in a dragon around him. It roared and flew straight at Yugito. She brought the wall of bone back up with a smirk, and began a chain of seals herself.

_CRACK!_

Yugito froze as the sound echoed around the stadium. Suddenly, the wall of bone exploded and she began to draw on the chakra of the Nibi to save herself. She gasped as the dragon slammed her into the wall. He amount of chakra behind the juts was massive, but Naruto looked no worse for wear. Of course, when you have the Kyuubi as a prisoner within you, this is to be expected.

Yugito tugged herself out of the wall and began raining down kunai. Naruto side stepped each kunai, or deflected it. When Yugito had only one kunai left, she jumped into the air and threw it with as much strength as she could pull from the Nibi behind it.

Naruto barely had time to pull up his own kunai, but Yugito's sailed through it and embedded itself in his arm. He tried pulling it out but it wouldn't budge. "Don't even try." The other blonde said. "It's embedded and fused with your bone."

"One kunai doesn't win a battle." Naruto stated as he reached for the katana.

"It doesn't have to. Look at the way the kunai landed around you."

Naruto looked around, and his eyes grew twice their size. "It's an jutsu amplifier seal!"

"Yep." Yugito said, just as she finished the hand seals for one of her most powerful jutsu. She grabbed her right wrist with her left hand as an orb of lightning began to take form inside of it. The tiny sphere electrified the air, making the girl's hair stand on end. The orb finished forming, and she brought it above her head. "Lightning Style: Infinite Storm Jutsu!" the orb of lightning fired into the air and exploded. Instantly, thunderclouds began to form. Naruto started to jump out of the seal array, when a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and split, hitting every kunai in the array. As the electricity was amplified, it raced around the array faster, until it reached its destination: Naruto.

The blonde boy screamed in pain as the electricity raced through his body. He pulled out every bit of Kyuubi's chakra he could, trying to lessen the pain, but it did very little. Finally, Yugito ended the jutsu, and Naruto was revealed. The kunai still had electricity dancing over it, the top part of his hair was smoking, and his skin was burned badly.

Naruto pulled on three tails, letting the chakra form around him, healing him ad protecting him. He picked up the katana he had dropped and pointed it at Yugito. "Don't ever do that again."

The older blonde smirked. "I can do it all I want. As long as the array is in place or you have that kunai in your arm, you can't do anything about─"

In one quick move, Naruto yanked the sword down, severing the arm from his body. He funneled all of the chakra into the spot, and watched in mild satisfaction as the bone slowly began to grow back. "Okay, try to do it now." Yugito growled.

"I still have the array. I just have to throw a kunai at you to get it to work."

Naruto smirked in satisfaction as Yugito activated the jutsu again, then threw three spare kunai at him. The bold to lightning exploded into the metal, racing through the array and into the three kunai, creating a web of electricity which raced straight towards him.

There was a massive explosion of smoke, and Yugito smiled and began to walk away. "Where are you going?" Naruto asked from the smoke.

"You lost Naruto. Give it up."

The blonde laughed as the smoke began to clear. "Your attack didn't hit Yugito. The smoke is from me summoning my ten newest puppets all together."

Yugito's eyes widened as the smoke completely cleared. Standing in front of her were ten giant dragons, each with a symbol for a specific element on its chest. Two of them were activated, which was shown by their eyes glowing brightly.

One was a giant black dragon, with spikes on its shoulders, back and head. Its stomach and the bottom of the neck were both yellow. Set into the center of its chest was a purple jewel. Its wings were medium sized, with a leathery composition. The four claws on each paw were long and ivory colored. Set in the center of its head was the symbol for Lightning.

The second dragon was larger, standing on its two back feet. It was gold plated, with a long tail that had spikes running down it. The plating covering the body was heavy, and instead of the normal type of wings, it had two sets of giant, wicked looking blades attached to it. Set in the center of its forehead was the symbol for Metal.

The dragons around it ranged in different shapes and sizes, and each controlled one of the ten elements.

The dragon for Earth was a massive, heavily built creature, with stone colored plating, and golden spikes shooting out of its back. Each claw was the same golden color as the spikes shooting from its back. Leaking from the puppet's mouth and three holes on each side of its neck was magma, which stirred around, ready to be used. A tree was growing out of its back, adding a strange touch of serenity to the monstrous creation.

The Fire dragon was on all fours as well, but smaller than the Earth dragon. It was completely red, the color of fire, and had spikes shooting out of its head. The underbelly was white, and instead of normal wings, the dragon's were made of actual flames. As it spread its wings, fire spread down its back, neck, and tail and a stream flowed out of its mouth into the air.

The Ice dragon was made the color of ice. It had a nasty looking head, and its wings looked like bats. Its tail had a large spike on the end of it, and spikes raced up from the bottom of the neck to the tip of the tail. It snorted, and a blast of liquid nitrogen froze the grass beneath it.

The Lava dragon looked like it was made of stone, with each piece of its tail segmented and spikes covering part of its neck. Lava seeped from within its body, and as the eyes began to glow, the molten rock flowed around the dragon, at Naruto's whim.

The Sand dragon was brown, with a gold underbelly. Its wings had spikes segmenting the golden leathery pieces, and blades extended from the bottom of these. Each of the teeth, claws, and blades, unlike on the other dragons, looked like metal. Spikes decorated its neck and spear head-like columns of scales decorated the arch of each wing.

The Water dragon was the color of the ocean. Instead of spikes, it had fins coming down from the arms and a protrusion at the back of its head. Its tail was the longest of them all, and had tiny fins on it. In its hand was a wicked looking sword, and each of its claws was carved from a rock the same color as the ocean.

The Wind dragon was bright green, with long flaps for wings. It had a set of vicious claws and teeth, and was heavily plated. White spikes covered its tail on the top and slightly on the bottom. Wind Chakra danced over its purple claws, creating miniature tornadoes.

The Wood dragon was the most terrifying. It was tethered by chains, with its wings spread out. Spikes covered it at random areas, and it was obvious by the roots shooting up around it that it wanted loose. It had two claws on each paw, and they were covered in blood.

Naruto smirked at all the shocked looks from around the area. "This is my construct that I have been working on with massive amounts of clones to create. I went through several fortunes to get the parts and seals and paper for the construction and design. I fell asleep with chakra exhaustion many nights after summoning clones to work on it. But this is only one of its two forms. The other is a combination of these ten puppets. But enough of this."

Chakra strings shot out from his back, connecting to each puppet and bringing them to life. He withdrew the strings from his fingers that were attached to his Metal and Lightning dragons as new one attached.

"IT'S TIME TO FINSIH THIS! DRAGON SERIES, COMMENSE ATTACK!"

(Cliff Hanger Jutsu! Aka authors notes)

So now you know one piece of the puzzle. Next chapter, Orochimaru make his move, and we finally see what the combined form of the Dragon Series is. The pictures of each dragon are on my photobucket. I'm putting a link to it on my profile, near the top.


	7. Assassination of a Kage

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

**--**

**I don't own Naruto, or anything involving it, except for the things I make up. Just thought you should know. Also, it's become rather obvious I'm making Naruto much too powerful, much too quickly. So it's time to throw things up in the air, wouldn't you say?**

**--**

**Chapter Seven: Assassination of the Kage**

Yugito's eyes grew wide as Naruto sent the Ice Puppet into the air. She back away quickly as a stream of liquid nitrogen slammed into the spot she had just inhabited. She jumped into the air as the Earth dragon exploded up from beneath her, ready to rip her to shreds. She landed on the small tree growing out of its back and jumped away.

The Wind dragon appeared and began pelting her with blasts of gale force weather. She barely managed to right herself as she headed towards the wall, landing on her feet like a cat, instead of her head like she started to. She jumped back on the ground as a set of metal spikes extended up the wall towards her. She dodged a blast of lava from said dragon by funneling chakra to her legs and flipping up onto the wall's edge.

Naruto smirked when he saw her sweating and panting. He spun his arm, which was now a piece of bone with muscle slowly beginning to form over it. "They're incredible aren't they? One of the many problems I had was gathering the massive amount of Elemental chakra needed to power them. I extracted the original supply from sleeping ninja that I had hit with a heavy knock-out gas. But once I gained control of five Ginta with the legendary bloodline, it was a lot easier. Even now, I have seals placed on them that funnel the Elemental chakra to these puppets, mixing them up in the correct order to make each element."

"Wind and Water make Ice. Earth and Fire makes Lava. Earth, Fire and Wind create Metal. Earth and Wind created Sand, and by mixing Earth and Water chakra, I created Wood. And of course, once I found the right source for my Elemental chakra, I had to find the correct amount and way to mix the chakras together. But enough about that." He said, manipulating the strings mentally, making the puppets rise into the air.

Together the monsters attack Yugito. They covered each other's weaknesses, played to each other's strength, and kept her occupied long enough for Naruto's arm to fully heal. Now he had ten more strings he could use to control the puppets, making things even more interesting. Yugito was constantly dodging attacks, trying to do hand signs, but being interrupted. The ground was too dangerous if she lost track of Wood, Lava, Earth, Fire, or Ice. Wind, Ice, Lightning, Fire, Water, and Sand made the air difficult as well. She had to do something to blow these puppets back or else she was doomed.

She suddenly stopped, and all ten puppets piled onto her. Naruto's eyes widened as he tried to pull the creation back, but it was too late. A massive explosion sent them reeling back and he had to deploy even more strings to stop them from being damaged to greatly.

Yugito stood up, two fiery tails swaying behind her. A legion of samurai began to rise up around her as the air around her began to glow with heat. She flashed through hand signs and a tidal wave of black chakra rose up to attack Naruto. He activated Fire dragon, but the flames had youki going through them, making them impossible to control. So Naruto and the puppets jumped into the air. The wave of fire altered its course to follow Naruto, and he realized what he would have to do to end this.

He pulled all ten dragons to him and sealed them away for later use. He flashed through hand seals, begging whatever mystical beings that existed to grant him favor. A massive wave of black water appeared behind him, pulled from the very same type of seal Haku used to seal his water. Naruto had channeled Kyuubi's youki through it and sent it crashing down towards the fire. The two collided with a massive explosion of steam. As it began to clear, the crowd stared in shock at the amazing Taijutsu battle they could just barely make out through the cloud of steam.

Naruto and Yugito both dropped to one knee, panting heavily. The youki of a demon had the unfortunate side effect of making the user weaker, damaging the chakra coils every time it was over used. They both stood up and dropped into their Taijutsu stance.

"Alright Yugito, time to finish this. You and I both know that this has gone on too long, both of us holding back. Time to step up or step off."

The other blonde nodded as their chakras surrounded them. The steam was expelled with a mighty blast of wind as they charged up. Both blondes shot forward, a jutsu charged up in their hands. Naruto had a sword of wind with a dragon head and two wings as the cross guard in his hand, which had been the basis for his Air Board Jutsu, while Yugito had a sword of lightning formed around her kunai. They swung their swords forward, slamming them into each other. An explosion rocked the area as the two Jinchuuriki staggered forward, foreheads pressed together.

"Not bad Blonde." One of them said.

"Says the blonde whose about to pass out." The other answered back.

"Ha, I guess you got a good point. I could use a nap." And with that, Yugito fell unconscious to the ground. Killer Bee came to collect her as Naruto walked up the wall to the observation deck. As soon as he touched the floor, Hanabi had him in a hug. He stared at her in shock for a moment before she let go and stepped back, blushing.

"Good jump out there Naruto." She said, before turning away and walking over to the other side of the deck. Naruto raised an eyebrow but simply turned back to the next mach, which was about to begin any second.

Shikamaru Nara and Temari stared at each other. Temari considered herself very smart, but this Nara kid… he was a supposed genius. As the match began, he jumped back and… slammed his head into a tree branch. He rubbed it as a bruise began to form. "How troublesome that I get hurt trying to stay out of range of an attack."

Temari smirked and pulled out her fan. "What makes you think you could dodge any of my attacks?" she asked as she opened the fan. Shikamaru's eye widened, knowing what that fan could do. He jumped backwards behind a tree as she swung it with a yell of "Wind Style: Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

The crescents ripped towards the tree, sawing it off and propelling it into the air. The trunk landed atop the wall and balanced on it precariously as Shikamaru peered over the stump. His eyes were wide, and his mind was going a mile a minute. He rolled out of the tree and formed a hand seal. "Ninja Art: Shadow Possession Jutsu!" his shadow elongated, shooting out towards the girl. Temari dodged the attack, trying her best to avoid the shadow. She flipped to the side, jumped onto her fan, threw a kunai to block the shadow, but it only became more substantial as it passed through it.

Finally, halfway across the stadium field, the shadow froze. "Damn, I reached the limit." Shikamaru said, standing up. He sighed and pulled out three kunai, which he threw above Temari, who smirked and began to comment on his bad aim, when the kunai exploded, and his shadow shot forward. Temari jumped into the air, and used her fan to blow away the explosion.

Shikamaru jumped to the side as blades of wind flew past him at high speed. He used a Replacement jutsu to trade places with a broken branch as she unleashed a more powerful version of the attack. Temari suddenly turned and chopped his tree down. As Shikamaru landed on the ground, he formed a hand sign, and closed his eyes.

(In the Stands)

Kurenai, the sensei for team ten, stared at him in confusion. "What's he doing Asuma?" she asked Shikamaru's sensei.

"That's a sign he makes when he's thinking. I once tricked him into taking an I.Q. test and he scored over two hundred. So he's probably thinking of a way to pull a victory out of his ass."

(Back on the Field)

Shikamaru's eyes snapped open and he let loose with a hail of kunai and shuriken that Temari blew to either side of her. The metal objects embedded into the wall as Shikamaru smirked. "Ninja Art: Shadow Possession Jutsu!" Temari prepared to move, but instead of heading for her the shadow arced around the edge of the field, passing through the shadow of the wall, to the shadows of the weapons on her left, through the shadow of the arm Naruto had chopped off, through the shadows of the weapons on her right, over to her.

Temari spun through the air and up the wall, running around the rim, flying through the air, all the while forcing the shadow to shrink in strength. Temari landed on the ground, her eyes locked with Shikamaru's. "Give it up. You can't win."

Shikamaru smiled to himself. "Look where you're standing right now." Temari looked down and realized she was in the middle of the jutsu amplifier seal Yugito had created. She couldn't move to the wall, because his shadow covered it, the ground was layered in it, and her only chance to escape would be to take Shikamaru out before his shadow reached the array.

However, she didn't get a chance, because the shadow reached the first kunai and spread rapidly. Without warning, several hands made of darkness shot out of the ground and grabbed her, restraining her. She struggled, but the hands simply held on tighter. They lifted her up into the air, before Shikamaru slammed her onto the ground, knocking her out.

"Winner of the match, Shikamaru Nara!" the crowd went up in roars of excitement as the lazy Nara slowly walked up the stairs to the observation deck.

"Would Haku and Jin Kyuuketsuki please come down?" the proctor called. Jin marched down the stairs instantly, but Naruto grabbed onto Haku's shoulder before he could go.

"Haku, remember, not only is this a way to show how strong Konoha is, it's a way to strengthen alliances between villages. Show them that Konoha creates honorable ninja. Then kick his ass and wipe the blood off the floor with him."

Haku nodded before following Jin down the stairs. When he had arrived at the bottom, he turned and stared at Jin. Then he did something completely unprecedented of a shinobi.

He stuck his hand out for Jin to shake.

The crowd grew silent, waiting for the reply from the Kumo-nin. A thousand thoughts a second were racing through Jin's mind. Was it a trick to place a seal on him? Or was it really just a simple hand shake? Either way, he had to shake hands, or else the village would become hostile towards him and Kumo again.

Jin stuck out his hand and they shook hands. "Good luck Jin." Haku said, a smile on his face.

"Same to you Haku." The vampire boy said, right before they both did a back flip and pulled out a kunai.

"BEGIN!"

Haku threw the kunai at Jin, who blocked it, sending it careening into the wall. Haku threw another kunai and it shared the same fate on the opposite wall. Haku threw another, this time followed by a jet of water, but Jin rolled to the side and rushed Haku. The ice user ducked his punch and did a leg swipe, bringing Jin to the ground. The vampire boy rolled to the side, dodging a sword of ice Haku now wielded expertly in his hand.

The ice user threw the sword at Jin, and it split into several senbon of ice. Jin flashed through hand signs and yelled "Fire Style: Ember Burst!" as hundreds of tiny fireballs fired from his hands, intercepting the senbon. Jin rushed forward, flashing through hand signs, and an explosion of anti-matter flowed from his mouth. The darkness formed into nine clones of Jin, circling around Haku with the original, slashing Haku with kunai and swords.

"You are going to die." Jin called. "Your usefulness has come to an end. You shall die today boy."

Haku grabbed his head as the memories rushed back. The image of his mother laying dead in the red snow, the mob of villagers his father had gathered to attack and kill him. It all came rushing back.

"NO! NO! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" Haku screamed. Suddenly, the ground began to shudder as hundreds of spikes made of ice exploded up from the ground, ripping apart the ground, destroying the trees, ripping apart the anti-matter clones, and almost impaling Jin, who just barely managed to fly upwards. Haku let out the water in his seals, filling the field up. He lifted the water up into the air, turning the liquid into four solid dragons made of ice. Jin's eyes widened beneath the headband blocking his face as the dragons attacked.

On the observation deck, Gaara and Naruto were both standing at the railing, watching Haku attack Jin with a crazy face. "Jin made a mistake. He brought forth the memories of Haku's father and mother and now the boy has no control." Naruto said.

"What if he kills Jin? Things with Kumo are already unstable." Gaara asked, the cork on his sand popping off so he could be ready to step in.

"Cork your gourd Gaara. If things get messy I'll step in and save Jin. Until then, I always wanted to see what Haku would be like as a berserker."

Haku's hands were moving at amazing speed as he moved the dragons and attacked with weapons made of ice, while at the same time anticipating Jin's attacks and countering them. The vampire boy was hard pressed to defend himself, so he did the only thing he could think of.

"Forbidden Style: Flames of Hades!" Jin opened his mouth and expelled a massive wave of black fire that slammed into the four dragons and the waves of weapons. The flames swirled in the air, melting away the dragons and weapons. Jin inhaled, taking the black fire back inside of him.

Jin smiled to himself. Now that Haku's water was evaporated, he wouldn't be able to use attacks.

"Forbidden Art: Steam Blast!" Jin dropped to the ground as a blast of steam expelled itself from Haku's mouth and hit the stadium wall, melting through the rock. A large, ragged crater was the only thing left, and the surface of the crater was red hot.

Jin and Haku both flashed through hand signs at high speeds before taking a deep breath.

"Forbidden Art: Steam Cannon!"

"Forbidden Style: Anti-Matter Cloud!"

A massive stream of burning hot steam exploded from Haku's mouth as a just as giant cloud of darkness escaped from Jin's. The two clouds slammed into each other, tangling into a chaotic mass of destruction with both sides struggling for dominance. Haku flashed through a second set of hand signs and stomped the ground. Massive pillars of steam, stolen from the nearby hot springs, erupted up from the ground and raced toward Jin, who was too caught up in sustaining the jutsu to notice.

Genma, Naruto, and Gaara all rushed through the air. Genma slammed into Jin, knocking him out of the way of the steam. Naruto used Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, flooding the jutsu with chakra, to stop the steam blasts. Gaara slammed into Haku, holding him down until he finally calmed down. He stared up at Gaara. "I lost control didn't I?"

Gaara simply nodded as he pulled Haku to his feet.

"The winner of this match," Genma called, "is Haku. However, because of the destructive nature of the winner's jutsus, we will have to take an hour long break to repair the field. You are welcome to go to the souvenir shop, or the concession stand. Just be back in an hour, with your ticket if you chose to leave the stadium for some reason, and the fights will continue."

Haku sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and smiled as Naruto lead him up to the observation deck, explaining what was going on. "How are your chakra supplies?" Gaara asked in a whisper as the repairs to the field began.

"I'm at halfway because of that Great Breakthrough. But I'll be fine." Naruto answer. Gaara nodded before going to get something to eat from the concession stand.

Sarutobi smiled up in the Kage box before jumping up and onto the edge. He jumped through the air, executing a roll as he went, and landed next to Naruto. "You did quite well in your match Naruto. And calling the Kyuubi Fluffers and getting in a massive argument while in a match that could determine your ninja career showed great ingenuity and enough mental ability to know how to distract your enemy and loll them into a false sense of confidence."

"Truthfully Old Man, the fox was being a jackass to me the other day, so I decided to embarrass him a little. But what you just said was true as well."

Sarutobi palmed himself in the face before sighing. "So, Naruto, we have an hour or so to kill until the field is repaired. Care to go on some diplomatic meetings with me?"

Naruto blanched, which only served to make Sarutobi laugh. "You mean go talk to the Daimyo and feudal lords and such?"

"Yes, that would be what I mean."

Naruto sighed before nodding. Sarutobi smiled as they made their way to the Daimyo and his guard of samurai. The Daimyo was a tall, somewhat fat man, dressed in a red robe with fire dancing around the edges. He had a grey mustache and hair, and kind, green eyes. His wife, and her damnable cat Tora, sat next to him.

"Ah, Lord Ochimo, so good to see you again. This is my young friend Naruto." The Hokage said. Naruto bowed to the Daimyo before standing back up and going into a staring contest with the Daimyo's lead samurai. Both of them kept a hand on one of their swords in case of an emergency.

"Yes, I've heard very much about this child. Does he know Sarutobi?" Naruto's ears perked up as his grip loosened slightly.

"Yes, he knows he is the son of the Yondaime." The lead samurai was taken by surprise, he blinked, and Naruto stuck out his hand. The samurai grumbled before handing the boy a wad of bills.

"So, young Naruto, I must know. After all the obvious miss treatment this village's occupants have put you through, why have you simply not left yet?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "I don't own my own country yet. And since I own all of Konoha's slums, I want to finish refurbishing all of the buildings, and I'll need to procure large amounts of ink so I can seal the buildings away for easy carriage."

The Daimyo raised an eyebrow and looked at Sarutobi. "That reminds me, Naruto, Ichiraku just got in a large shipment of their special ramen flavored Pocky of you want to go get some." Naruto never actually heard the end of the sentence, because he ran away as quickly as possible. Sarutobi turned to the Daimyo, a serious look on his face. "Now, I need to speak to you about something."

Naruto rushed to Ichiraku, where the old man who owned it and his daughter gave him a large box full of ramen flavored Pocky. Naruto's mouth began to salivate, and the two ramen chefs laughed, remembering a younger, more care free, Naruto.

When Naruto returned, he had five sticks balanced in his mouth, somehow managing to take a bite of one at a time. He went up to the observation deck and watched as the crowd funneled back into the stadium. The field had been repaired, and they had even removed the arm he had chopped off.

Naruto stared at Sakura. She looked more confident with the hourglass of pink sand strapped to her back. Her outfit, a pink dress with black shorts, had changed, becoming a short pink shirt that showed her stomach, with black ninja pants, and a long pink cloak with a pair of combat boots with a blade in the tip of each. Her hair had been cut to her shoulders so it wouldn't get in the way. When she and Gaara fought, it would be most interesting. At that moment, Genma called both Sakura and Gaara down, and they both disappeared in a swirl of sand.

"You may Begin!" Genma yelled as he flew away from the soon-to-be-carnage. The top of the hourglass exploded into the air as Sakura prepared to attack. However, Gaara bent forward, and the cork of his gourd shot through the air towards Sakura, who grabbed it out of the air and crushed it in her palm.

"Not bad Haruno." Gaara said as his own sand swarmed out around him. "But remember, I taught you everything you know. But far from everything I know." Gaara's sand suddenly started to come out quicker and quicker, like a river of brown specks. Gaara smirked at Naruto's genius idea of putting a storage seal at the bottom of the gourd that contained even more sand. He had a miniature desert in his gourd, while Sakura was limited to the pink sand.

The Haruno smirked. "What makes you think I didn't go and get more sand as well?" Gaara's eyes widened as she moved the cloak out of the way, revealing the four scrolls strapped to her belt. They unrolled slightly, showing a storage seal on each, and pink sand began to pour out and swirl around her. "I spent the month outside of the village, going from cherry blossom grove to cherry blossom grove. I caught this white haired old man trying to peep on me, and to apologize, he taught me the seal you put on my sand to give me control over it."

Gaara's eyes and he snapped. The sand suddenly froze, before turning towards Sakura and rushing her. She lazily raised her arm and flicked her wrist in a 'shoo' motion. Her sand rushed forward as well, and the brown and pink slammed into each other, tangling into an explosion of color. As more and more sand joined the fight, both of the ninja began to strategize. Unfortunately, since Sakura had learned her strategizing skills from Gaara, which he had to teach her all of for her own survival, they came up with the same plan.

'_I'll wait till he/she isn't expecting it and rushed through to sand to punch him/her!'_

A wall of sand formed and both of the ninja rushed forward through the wall, each preparing to attack. Sakura dodged Gaara's fist as they both burst through the sand and did a handstand, rotating on her hands. She extended the blades in her toe and rushed towards Gaara, who diverted some of the sand to defend him. He grabbed her ankle and through her into the air. Sakura pulled some of her sand to her, forming a weapon out of the sand. Gaara formed two halves of a shield over her arms as Sakura rushed at him with two scimitars.

As Gaara and Sakura slammed their creations into each other, the crowd marveled. Grains of pink and brown sand floated into the air before flying back down into the creation with each strike. Sakura's strikes flashed back and forth as Gaara used the shield to defend. As the two Genin struggled, the sand in the air continued to struggle for supremacy. Sakura released more sand from the scrolls and formed two more sets of arms and swords on his back. Gaara swirled more sand around him, blocking each attack.

Sakura flipped backwards to the wall of the stadium and pulled all of the pink sand to her. She began a long, slow chain of hand signs as Gaara pulled his own sand back. Near the end of the chain, he realized what jutsu she was going to use and flashed through the same chain, only much faster. They both finished the chain at the same moment and yelled _"Sand Style: Twin Sand Dragons Jutsu!"_

Both sets of sand swirled around the owner, forming a set of long serpentine dragons behind the two ninja. The four dragons rushed forward and collided, exploding outwards into spikes, kunai, shuriken, senbon and swords. Sakura was slammed against the wall and slumped, unconscious.

"Winner, Gaara!" the crowd went up in cheers as medic-nin filed out to take Sakura away. Gaara took Sakura's belt, which had her scrolls, and sealed up the particles of pink sand before going into the medical area. "Would Sasuke Uchiha and Rock Lee please come down to the arena floor?"

Sasuke Shunshinned down, but Lee, unable to do such a thing, and to impatient to go down the stairs, ran forward, jumped onto the railing of the observation deck, and jumped through the air, slamming into the ground with enough force to leave a crater. He slowly rose up into a Taijutsu stance, but once he did, he moved his limbs so quickly there was a loud _crack!_

"Sasuke Uchiha, natural born Genius, prepare to lose to a genius of hard work." Lee said once Genma had started the match. Sasuke rolled his eyes before letting loose a barrage of shuriken. The crowd roared as they sailed through the air straight at Lee, who… suddenly disappeared. A moment later, there was a large _SNAP!_ Sasuke was shot backwards into the wall, holding his side, as Lee pulled the leg back.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan, making the crowd go back into cheers. Lee disappeared again, and each time he reappeared, Sasuke would dodge the attack. Finally, after dodging a massive fireball jutsu, Lee straightened up. "You are quite good Sasuke Uchiha, almost as good as my teammate Neji Hyuuga, but not quite." Sasuke ground his teeth, remembering how Naruto had beaten Neji. "However, because of the Sharingan, you can read my moves, so I will no long hold back."

Sasuke's eyes widened. He was holding back?! Sasuke was strained as it was. This wasn't good.

Lee reached into his leg warmers and pulled out two sets of weights. The crowd began to laugh, because the weights resembled those civilians bought to lift. However, when Lee threw them behind him, an entire section of the stadium wall collapsed and fell away. Lee disappeared and Sasuke was sent flying backwards, then forwards, then up, then down, then into the bottom of the Kage box. The Uchiha tore himself from the stone and began to fall. Lee struck out and his bandages unwrapped, curling around Sasuke. The boy slammed the Uchiha into the ground, knocking him unconscious, before rolling up his bandages and picking up his weights, which he carried easily on his shoulder.

"Winner of the match, Rock Lee! Senior medics, attend to Sasuke Uchiha! The boy is in critical condition!" the crowd was completely silent. The last Uchiha had been beaten by a no name ninja. Even while Sasuke had the Sharingan going. Not only that, but he had put the Uchiha in critical condition, and it was obvious that if he had wanted it, Sasuke would be dead by Lee's hand.

Next it was Hanabi and Kankuro. Kankuro gave up however, under the pretense that fighting a battle where his only weapon became useless would only be a waste of chakra.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, time for the next round of the Chuunin Selection Exams to begin! Six matches have been fought and won, and now the winners will move on to face each other. First up is Naruto Uzumaki VS Shikamaru Nara!"

Naruto descended down the wall while Shikamaru was, well, he tried to just give up, but Temari, still aggravated she lost to him, used her fan to bat him over the railing and make him land face first in the center of the field. "Begin!"

Naruto started to reach for his puppets, but Shikamaru was too quick. He let loose with a barrage of kunai and shuriken that forced Naruto to abandon the scrolls. He tried again and managed to pull the scrolls into the air, but Shikamaru threw a set of kunai and managed to pin the scrolls to the wall. Naruto turned to him with a murderous glare. Red chakra flowed around him as his anger got the better of him. "**Shikamaru, if I'm not able to recover the puppets inside of those storage scrolls, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!**" Naruto roared as he shot across the ground, the curse mark spreading over his skin.

Kakashi, one of the Sandaime's selected guards, began to move, but Hiruzen grabbed him. "No, he has control over it. It is merely a power enhancing seal now. The Kyuubi neutralized the piece of Orochimaru's soul he placed within it, and Jiraiya and I are working on a seal to completely remove it. Minato started the formula himself when Anko returned to the village."

Kakashi nodded his head before relaxing. Orochimaru however was fuming. He tried to activate the negative effect of the seal, sending massive amounts of pain down the person's body as the seal forced the brain to slowly cut off each of the organs and stop the blood, making it clot instantly within the veins, but he couldn't reach it. Anko winced every few seconds in the stands, feeling the effects of the snake's rage.

Naruto's swung his sword out, intent on cleaving Shikamaru's head off, but the Nara rolled to the side. The blade's barely touched the edge of the wall, but because Kyuubi's chakra naturally enhances Naruto's natural affinity to wind, the blade made an eighteen inch deep gash in the stone. Shikamaru dodged similar attacks, much to Naruto's chagrin. The Kyuubi's chakra, when used in doses, wasn't harmful, but the way he was using it lately was causing harm to his chakra coils. He needed to end this before it damaged his control so much that he couldn't make chakra strings anymore.

Naruto disappeared, and Shikamaru's stomach suddenly was split open horizontally. The Nara fell to the ground as blood ran from the gash. It wasn't fatal, but it would be a bitch to heal.

"I'm stopping the match!" Genma yelled as the red chakra receded. "That wound is not fatal, but it will incapacitate him for several weeks." The medics took Shikamaru away as Naruto trudged up the wall, grabbing the scrolls containing his puppets as he went. Gaara handed him a Diluting Pill, a specially made pill that lessened the effect of Bijuu chakra on a ninja's chakra coils.

"Are you okay?"

"No." Naruto answered as he swallowed the pill. "My muscles are screaming, my chakra coils are burning, I have a massive headache, and Shikamaru damaged the storage seals on the scrolls." Naruto said after opening the storage devices. "It will take time for me to fix it, and I'll need a lot of concentration to remove the puppets without destroying them. Luckily, it wasn't the Dragon Series I was going to use, but the Sound Spectrum and the Animal puppets. I still have Desolation, Retribution and Genocide, the Honorable Series, plus the dragons and the final forms necessary components."

"Will it be enough?" Gaara asked, going over the invasion plan in his head with these changes factored in.

"It should. The dragons have two more modes, and the final transformation will be more than enough to defend the village." Gaara nodded before walking down the stairs to the field, where Haku was waiting for him.

"BEGIN!"

(Scene Shift)

Sasori was quite impressed to say the least. The boy had found a way to control more than ten puppets without turning himself into a human puppet. His puppet designs were blunter when it came to power, exposing their weapons early on, or only having one powerful weapon that the puppet relied on. But still, he had seen the other puppets when he had snuck into the compound. The security puppets hadn't attacked him, since he _was_ a puppet, and they assumed Naruto had sent him. The boy had some ground breaking work going on but it wouldn't be finished for several years at least.

The other thing that made Sasori very happy was that Orochimaru, his ex partner, was here. He was most likely trying to take care of the Sandaime Hokage, and while he would love to add another Kage to his puppets, the other four Kages were a problem. The Kazekage would attack him, and the Raikage most likely. The Mizukage was most likely going to transform and cause damage, while the Tsuchikage would help Konoha after the display of power Team Hokage had shown.

Oh yes, things in Konoha would soon get interesting.

(Scene Change)

Gaara and Haku stared at each other intently. Wet sand, senbon, ice shards, and blood covered the ground. Haku was cut up, Gaara was growing tired, and they both knew they needed to end things quickly. So Haku pulled the water out of the sand littering the ground, and melted the ice shards before pulling them to him as well. Gaara called up sand and formed two of Shukaku's arms out of his gourd. Haku formed the water into a wall of miniature zanbato, and sent them at Gaara.

Gaara sent the arms out as more sand trailed. The Shukaku arms formed a massive ball of sand in each hand, which slammed into the swords, and dropped into puddles of muck on the ground. The arms however made it through and grabbed Haku, wrapping him up in a Sand Coffin.

"I submit to Gaara!" Haku called. Gaara set the boy down and they both withdrew their respective elements back to them. Finally it was time for Lee and Hanabi to fight. The Hyuuga girl stared at the older, stronger opponent. She lunged forward, intent on using Chakra Ray Pulse, but Lee appeared behind her and kicked the back of her knees, unbalancing her.

She turned around and shifted into a stance that made Lee's eyes widened. "You're in my field of divination. Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!" She said before lunging forward. Lee took the attack boldly, waiting until she had finished. As she prepared to deliver the sixty-fifth attack to send Lee flying back, the boy caught her wrist.

"I'm afraid you are at a disadvantage. I can't use my chakra nodes at all." was all he said before his hand lashed out and hit her on the back of the neck, knocking her unconscious.

"Winner, Rock Lee!" Genma yelled.

Now the crowd was really excited. As medics took Hanabi away, they all began to place bets on who would win the next, most likely most exciting match, Gaara VS Naruto Uzumaki.

Genma called the two ninja down, and the stared at each other. As they began to move forward and fight each other, a massive explosion rocked through the stadium and white feathers began to fall from the sky. The ninja dispelled the basic Genjutsu but the civilians fell asleep. All five Kages and their body guards moved. The body guards of the Mizukage ripped off their robes, revealing Orochimaru and the infamous Kiri assassins, Mei and Fuubi Terumi. The Tsuchikage and his guards jumped away, while the Kazekage and Raikage turned to Orochimaru. The snake ninja wiped blood on a storage seal tattooed to his upper arm and four ninja appeared. Orochimaru jumped up onto the roof of the building, followed by the three Kages, as the four ninja Orochimaru had summoned jumped up and formed a massive purple barrier around the rooftop. Yagura threw his Kage robes and hat away and pulled out a staff with a hook on each end, with a flower on the end with the larger hook. The Kage jumped high into the air and suddenly began to twitch as green chakra surrounded him.

A massive turtle/shark fell on the village. Ninja began to attack the massive Sanbi but to no avail. At the wall surrounding the village, hundreds of ninja from Kiri and Otogakure, the Village hidden in the Sound, rushed towards the village, intent on destroying it.

But what none of the enemies knew was that all of this was expected.

Gaara let his Shukaku form appear as all of the sleeping civilians were replaced by Shadow Clones of all the ninja in the village that could use the technique. The Shukaku and the Sanbi rushed each other as Haku helped the last of the civilians get to the bunker. Sections of the wall surrounding the wall slid away revealing the puppet hands Naruto had created wrapping around the wall in two rows. Puppets began to flood out of the storage seals between the hands. The hands connected chakra strings to the army of bandit puppets and sent them forward. Each puppet had two seals inside of them, or rather one seal copied so it appeared twice. If the puppet broke, the seal activated, pulling the parts together, until the chakra in the seal was gone. Combined with the numbers, and the element of surprised, the puppets managed to rush forward and destroy a third of the attacking ninja before they realized what was happening.

The Sandaime activated a seal painted on his forearm, causing it and its counterpart, which was on the same place on Naruto, to glow an eerie blue. The seal disappeared from both ninja as Naruto appeared in a puff of smoke next to Sarutobi.

Orochimaru's eyes widened as Naruto revealed a copy of the seal on his other arm that pulled Jiraiya to them.

"Oh shit." Orochimaru said, letting out the curse before he realized it.

"That's what happens when you try to assassinate a Kage." Sarutobi said as he summoned Enma in his staff form, Naruto pulled out one of his puppet scrolls, Jiraiya formed a Rasengan, the Kazekage pulled out his spear, and the Raikage activated the jutsu that sped up his nervous system.

Orochimaru could do nothing except say, "Oh shit."

--

And there you have it. The invasion has begun. Now I need a favor. I posted a poll on my profile for this story that I need you, the fan of this story, to check out and vote on. Thanks.

And since I know SOMEONE is going to complain, Naruto didn't create the seals, Jiraiya, Sarutobi, Kakashi AND Naruto worked together to do so. Naruto is not some mega powerful instant seals master in a can or something. Also, I may have made a few mistakes but I don't know. I have a few chapters written out already but I won't be able to update as frequently since my dad just got out of the hospital.


	8. Family Friend

**Demon on Puppet Strings**

_**By**_

_**Ragnorokrising**_

**I don't own Naruto, or anything involving it, except for the things I make up. Just thought you should know. **

**Chapter Eight: A Friend Of The Family**

Orochimaru stared at the group facing him. Three Kages, a powerful Jinchuuriki, and his old teammate. He would have to pull out all the stops for this one. He began a set of hand signs but he was so focused on getting them correct that he didn't see the punch until it was too late. Orochimaru flipped to the side as Naruto aimed a kick at his head. Orochimaru grabbed the leg and twisted it. Naruto fell to the ground as a loud CRACK issued from his leg.

The blonde stood up as the leg twisted back into its correct position. He drew the two swords as a snake extended out of Orochimaru's mouth and spit out a sword. The two ninja rushed forward. Naruto begrudgingly admitted that he needed to desperately work on his Kenjutsu. Without Kyuubi's chakra to enhance his muscles and increase the blades cutting power, Orochimaru easily broke the two swords, sending Naruto flying backward.

Before the ninja could rush forward, Orochimaru flashed through a long chain of hand signs and yelled out, "Summoning: Impure World Resurrection!" as four coffins rose up from swirling purple portals, each with a number on them. The coffins fell opened, and out stepped four figures that caught everyone by surprise.

The three dead Hokage of Konoha and the Sandaime Kazekage stared at the men before them. All of them had tattered clothing like they had been pulled straight out of the battled they had died in and each looked pale.

The Yondaime Hokage turned and stared at Naruto. "Huh, looks like the village didn't honor my last wish." The dead blonde stared at Sarutobi and Jiraiya. "I expected better of you two." Then he turned around and walked behind Orochimaru, up to one of the Sound ninja, the only girl in the group.

"What the hell to you want, you dead cock sucker?"

The Hokage tilted his head slightly. "A daughter should not talk to her father like that Tayuya." With that he turned and marched back to his original position.

Jiraiya and Sarutobi looked at the first two Hokage. "It has been quite some time, hasn't it?" Sarutobi said. "I hoped I wouldn't see you two for several more years."

The Hokages smiled. "Yes, well, we were hoping for the same thing." The Nidaime answered.

The Kazekage stared at his predecessor with fury in his eyes. "I'm glad Orochimaru brought you back you bastard. Now I can kill you myself for what you did!" he yelled as his spear exploded into a miniature tornado.

"Ah, the little boys still mad that I raped and killed his little mommy and sissy. Look at it this way boy. At least your little sister didn't die a virgin."

The Kazekage exploded with rage, ripping the roof beneath him apart. A tornado formed around him, shooting up and hitting the roof of the building.

The Yondaime looked at Naruto with sorrow filled eyes. "You gotta believe me, I never meant for this to happen. I wanted you to be seen as a hero son."

Naruto looked down at the roof before pulling out a scroll with the word 'Royal' written on it. He unrolled it, revealing the kanji for one, two, and four. "Don't worry. I'll pay you back for this."

Before anyone could do anything, Orochimaru threw a kunai into each of the Kages's heads. They sank in to the flesh like it was water, and a second later, the armor and clothing and wounds on each body repaired themselves. The skin gained his original color as Orochimaru began to laugh. "Former Kages of Konoha and Suna, DESTROY THEM!"

The Kages began to move forward, when Naruto channeled chakra into the scroll. A moment later, three puppets landed on the ground, and a moment later, Desolation, Retribution and Genocide followed. But everyone was paying attention to the first three puppets. The human puppets of the three dead Hokage Orochimaru summoned clacked into life as chakra strings attached to them. The Yondaime puppet formed a Rasengan, the Nidaime puppet activated the Raijin, and the Shodaime formed a spear out of the tiles beneath him.

Another surprise happened at that very moment. A hole appeared in the tile beneath the Sound Four. A purple pill flew upwards and exploded into purple mist. The ninja lost control of the jutsu and the barrier faded into nothingness as they collapsed, wheezing. A man appeared at that moment. He was hunched over, dressed in a black cloak with red clouds, with a piece of clothe over his mouth. But Naruto knew it was a puppet, as did the Kazekage.

The back opened up and out stepped a sixteen year old boy, or at least sixteen in appearance, dressed in the same black cloak with red clouds. Orochimaru gulped as Sasori of the red sand unsealed his legendary puppet, the Sandaime Kazekage.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said as the chakra smoke dissipated, "But I wanted the honor of killing this fool. Again." The real Kazekage ground his teeth as Iron Sand began to form around both the puppet and living Kazekage. "Oto and Mist shinobi are inside the walls, and the Kumo and Suna ninja are taking heavy damage. I suggest you go help them."

The Kazekage glared at his predecessor before nodding. He relied on his weapon to much anyway, and the Sandaime would take control of it and damage him if he used it. The Raikage simply went where he could cause the most damage.

Jiraiya started to stay, when the eastern wall collapsed and a massive snake with three heads appeared. He jumped off the roof, summoning a toad as he did so. ANBU began to run to the Sandaime's aid, but FOG members, the Kiri equivalent of ANBU, appeared and engaged them.

And so it was. The real and puppet Sandaime Kazekage rushed at each other, each taking control of the others Iron Sand. The First Hokage human puppet and soul collided, slamming blocks of wood into each other. The Nidaime Hokage puppet and soul let loose with a torrent of water from their mouth, which collided in the center of the roof. The Yondaime Hokages rushed towards each other with their legendary speed, slamming a Rasengan forward. The two spheres of blue chakra battled against each other, each trying to gain an upper hand. The Sandaime Hokage leapt forward and began battling against Orochimaru's sword, the legendary Kusanagi blade.

It quickly became apparent, however, that the puppets had the upper hand. The souls could only use certain techniques, and Orochimaru was the one supplying the chakra for the techniques, so he only allowed them to use a certain amount. But Naruto and Sasori could have the puppets use any jutsu they wanted, or increase the power of their jutsu.

Sasori pumped more chakra into his puppet's magnetism device, upping the control. The Iron sand shot towards the soul of the Kazekage, incasing him and crushing him. Naruto did the same with the Shodaime, causing spikes to shot out and impale the soul from the back. The Nidaime puppet stuck the Raijin into the water and electricity raced down the water, into the soul's body. Naruto channeled more chakra into the Yondaime puppet's Rasengan, causing it to grow to a mammoth size, easily swallowing the soul's Rasengan and crushing him beneath it. The Sandaime worked in conjunction with Desolation, Retribution, and Genocide to overwhelm the snake Sannin.

Orochimaru kicked Desolation away, jumped over Retribution, rolled between Genocide's flame streams, and prepared to strike the Sandaime. But the old Hokage was waiting, and slammed his staff into the snake Sannin's face, disorienting him. He dropped the sword, which Sarutobi grabbed and swung, removing Orochimaru's left arm, the one with his summoning tattoo on it. Orochimaru hissed and jumped back.

Sarutobi dropped the sword, which had transformed into a snake and slithered back over to Orochimaru. The Sandaime smirked as they looked at the four deceased Kages, but Orochimaru switched places with him, grinning malevolently as the four Kages reformed.

Naruto sighed as he began a set of hand seals. He made a Shadow clone, adding four seals to the chain. The clone appeared in a blast of red smoke, revealing a Naruto with red hair, red clothing, and slitted red eyes. His fingers nails were jagged claws, and a red chakra swirled around him. "**What'd you know brat, that old perverts jutsu worked!**" was the only warning any of them received. A moment later, the Kyuubi, trapped inside a Shadow Clone, disappeared, letting loose with a barrage of punches and kicks.

This was an ancient jutsu Jiraiya had dug up for him that people with split personalities used, to give their other personas forms. And since the Kyuubi was considered another persona of Naruto, it could be used to give him a form similar to Naruto's.

Normally Naruto wouldn't have summoned the Kyuubi, but he begrudgingly admitted the fox was better at fighting and controlling the puppets simultaneously. Add to it that he had just seen Gaara loose to Yagura, and he had no choice but to leap from the roof to aid his friend.

(Scene Change)

Gaara had been doing well. His Wind Drill attack tore through the water attacks easy, and with Haku helping him, any water attacks that got through were frozen. But then Yagura did something none of them suspected. He let out all of his Bijuu's chakra, letting the beast gain control. The Sanbi was merciless, using water jutsu after water jutsu, at little to no cost to himself. Gaara tried to release Shukaku, but as soon as he did, the 'great wind demon' started crying that he didn't want to get wet and gave control back to Gaara! So Now Gaara was leaning against a building, watching as Haku battled Yagura, who had reverted back to his original form to deal with Haku.

The Ice Mirrors surrounded him, unleashing ice senbon, but Yagura deflected them easily. He jumped up, hitting the top mirror, sending his demon's chakra through it. Haku was forced to jump out as the mirror collapsed. Yagura swung the staff around, catching Haku's arm with the hook and throwing him against the wall near Gaara. The Kage jumped into the air, intent on delivering the final strike, when Naruto appeared.

The blonde caught Yagura off guard, slamming a powerful kick into his stomach. The Kage fell to the ground, no air in his lungs. He gulped in oxygen, trying to fill his lungs again. While he did this Naruto summoned up his ten dragons and began to attack. However, the dragons were too large for the narrow street they were on, so he flashed through a small set of hand seals.

"Puppetry Art: Puppet Merge Jutsu: Dragons of Dark and Light!" he called as the dragons began to shutter and fall apart. However, instead of the pieces falling to the ground, they levitated in the air, turning and shifting and transforming before flying back into the puppets. However, each of the puppets were coming together, forming two brand new dragons.

The first was pitch black, with a grey underbelly and four purple, tattered wings. Spikes raced up its back, tipped with purple. A set of three spikes was set on the end of the tail. It had six muscular clawed arms. Set in the center of its chest was the kanji for 'Darkness'. It was composed of the Wood, Lightning, Metal, Sand, and Ice dragons.

The second was blue, with white armor plating on its legs, and a golden underbelly. A golden horn adorned its head. Golden fur grew out from its shoulders, and two golden, angelic wings adorned its back. Set on its forehead was the kanji for 'Light'. It was composed of the Lava, Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water dragons.

Naruto sent the dragons forward, the six arms of the darkness dragon and the spikes of the light dragon ripping apart the landscape. Yagura used his staff, combined with his demon's chakra, and a set of basic water jutsu to dodge the attacks. Naruto had the two dragons rush him from the front, and he jumped over them, only for Naruto to appear and slice off both arms with a set of razor sharp kunai.

Yagura stared at the blood flowing gently down his side. And he screamed. He screamed so loudly that all of the ninja within a mile stopped fighting, listening to the Kage scream in utter agony, before returning to the attack. Yagura began to breathe heavily as the green chakra around him thickened and he began to grow.

"Naruto, he's turning into the Sanbi!" Haku yelled.

Naruto nodded as the two dragons began to separate into individual parts. "I know, I wanted him to do this." He replied as the Ginta, Zabuza, the two Hyuuga, and the two Uchiha appeared. The parts began to form around the puppets as they and Naruto began to levitate upwards. More parts were expelled from seals on Naruto's body as people began to look up and notice the blonde. The pieces came together into a massive dragon, with huge spikes running down its back and tail. It looked demonic, with huge claws, slanted red eyes, and two massive wings. Naruto was in a compartment in what would have been the base of the spine. He sat on a seat that reclined in front of him, so he could lie on his stomach. Chakra strings from his hands shot out, connecting to a set of puppets hands, one for each finger, and those hands extended to more hands, and so on, until he gained control over the wings. The Wind Ginta was above him, augmenting his power so it would be easier to stay aloft.

The other four Ginta were placed strategically around the dragon, powering its components. Zabuza was at the tip of the tail, his blade creating the final spike and allowing Naruto to channel chakra through the others, as well as using the iron in the blood the blade collected to repair any damage to the body. The female Hyuuga and Uchiha stood in the left eye, while the males stood in the right, allowing him to see all around, and copy any jutsu that he saw being performed. And of course, a piece of metal came down, connecting his chakra armor's chakra strings to the rest of the puppet, allowing him to control it. A pair of glasses-like viewing devices slid down over his head, allowing him to see out of the dragon's eyes, as well as the other eyes placed randomly on the body.

He stared at the massive shark turtle hybrid before him and spoke out through a microphone, but it came out of the dragon's mouth, in a heavily altered, deep voice that struck fear into all of the ninja listening below Kage level.

"_**Behold the power of the God Dragon, Torrador, my ultimate creation! With it, I can control all five elements, as well as the sub elements! Cower before me, enemies of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze!**_"

Every ninja from Kuma and Iwa froze and stared at the massive dragon, knowing who was controlling it. The blonde kid that had demonstrated his power in the Exams was none other than the son of Konoha's Yellow Flash!

Yagura's demon didn't care however, he simply rushed forward, all three tails swinging. Torrador's tail flew upwards, ensnaring one tail, while his claws grabbed onto the other two. The dragon rose upward, taking the creature with it, and began to spin, quicker and quicker, becoming a massive blur in the sky, before letting go of the Bijuu. The creature was sent flying through the air and into the forest, crushing the surrounding canopy. Torrador opened its mouth as Fire and Wind chakra formed an oval shaped dome of fire in its mouth. The monster opened his mouth, and a massive, solid stream of fire expelled from its mouth.

Water condensed in the air above the Sonbi's mouth. The tails leaned forward, condensing it, filling it with chakra, and making it stronger. A blast of water zoomed out of Bijuu's mouth, colliding with the flames. Naruto began to pour more chakra into the attack, until Torrador was glowing bright blue. The fire and water streams battled it out, pushing back and forth, each trying to gain more ground. And it soon became apparent that the monstrous Bijuu would win. Torrador lifted into the air, cutting off his attack.

He stayed up high, swerving around the water attack, charging up another attack. But every time he stopped to try and launch it, the water would come close to hitting him, and slicing his puppet up. Naruto began to believe he should save the chakra and end the attack when a massive wall of sand appeared in front of him, hardening until it was as strong as steel. The water attack pounded against it, as Torrador pushed himself backwards, charging the attack.

As the water attack broke through the wall, Yagura smirked to himself. Until the water turned bright yellow from the massive amount of electricity racing down it. Yagura managed to warn the Sanbi, who wasn't paying attention, and the creature shut its mouth before the electricity could climb into its mouth and through its body. However, the Sanbi was the Bijuu of water, so he still took a huge dose of electricity.

Naruto, seeing the shift in the tide of battle, activated a seal placed on his arm. Jiraiya, Kakashi, the Sandaime, and himself had massed produced them, giving them out to all Chuunin and up shinobi. The seals could hold a low-Jounin level amount of chakra, and by adding to it every day, you would soon accumulate a back up reserve of chakra.

Naruto activated one of his five copies of this seal, each of which had taken him five days a piece to fill. With the help of Chiyo and the human puppets. Instantly, Torrador began to glow again, and he started to unleash attacks. He brought his arms up in a quick motion, and a massive tree appeared beneath the creature, sending it into the air. A sand storm appeared beneath it, keeping it levitated. It began to rain and thunder around the Bijuu, and a sphere of chakra formed around the creature, before Torrador froze it. As the Sanbi was breaking out, Torrador dropped to the ground and punched the forest floor, sending a tidal wave of lava towards the shark turtle hybrid. Boulders chased after it as it managed to jump in the air. Finally, Torrador opened his chest, and thousands of blazing kunai sailed through the air towards the monster.

The Sanbi roared in pain as Yagura was forced to the surface. Torrador flew over the sleeping form of the Kage, slamming his tail into the man. The sheer force, combined with the chakra enhanced spike on the end, decapitated the Kage, and a net shot out, grabbing his body.

(Scene Change)

Orochimaru was panting. Sasori and the Shadow Clone of Naruto were destroying his summons over and over again, and the jutsu used his chakra to heal them, so he was constantly growing weaker. He had lost one arm, and that reduced his jutsu library significantly. Now only that, but he lost his summoning tattoo. He needed to escape fast. His eyes narrowed and a smile crept over his face. Yes, he was too slow to keep the Yondaime from telling Tayuya the truth, but he still had Karin, and he would torture her until she begged for mercy, before healing her and starting all over again.

Sarutobi interrupted his thought wandering by nearly hitting him with Enma, snapping his head off. Luckily, he missed, and Orochimaru hissed with excitement, seeing the old man over extend himself. He plunged the Kusanagi into the old man's stomach with glee, but the staff transformed into the Monkey King, Enma, and the monkey grabbed his good arm and used his tail to restrict his legs. Sarutobi struggled, making three Shadow Clones, before flashing through hand signs. "Dead Demon Consuming Seal!" he yelled (I think that's the correct name for the jutsu, correct me if I'm wrong).

Instantly, a massive ethereal shape appeared behind Sarutobi. It was the Shinigami, the Death God, the eater of souls.

"Kyuubi!" the Hokage yelled, knowing about the advanced alteration of Shadow Clone jutsu that Jiraiya created that draws out other personalities, in Naruto's case the fox. "Get the matching puppet between the Hokage bodies and my Shadow Clones!"

Kyuubi smirked, apparently realizing what Sarutobi planned to do. It was killing four birds with one jutsu. Kyuubi maneuvered the correct Kage towards their souls, making it the soul, the puppet, and the Shadow Clone, as the Shinigami stuck his hand through the Shadow Clones. The arm pulled the soul into the puppet, which Kyuubi quickly pulled back to him. After doing this to all three Hokage, the clones surrounded the Kazekage. The Shinigami stuck his hand in the Iron Sand and ripped out the Kazekage's soul. As the Shadow Clones dispersed, the Shinigami turned to Orochimaru.

Orochimaru used his tongue/snake to push the sword in further, and to push it upwards in a gruesome display of blood. But Sarutobi had become numb, because the Death God was reaching through his body to grab Orochimaru. He managed to pull the top half of Orochimaru's soul out, when his chakra began to run low. That was when Naruto appeared.

He sealed the Kages up and dispersed Kyuubi, not even realizing what had happened to them. He ran over to Kage, but the old man growled at him. "There's nothing you can do now Naruto. Just stay back while I finish this!" he yelled. Naruto realized what was going on, or rather, the fox told him, and he began to draw on the power of the Curse Seal. He touched the Hokage's shoulder and began to pump his chakra into the Hokage, as a final thank you present. The Sandaime managed to pull out the lower body and the remaining arm, before he had the Shinigami chop them off with one quick slice.

Orochimaru screamed and staggered back. Sasori by now had sealed up his puppet and left, having no further interest in any of this. As Oto ninja appeared and took Orochimaru away and his three male ninja, leaving Tayuya, The Sandaime fell to the ground.

"You did great old man. Orochimaru is screwed over." Sarutobi smiled before shaking his head.

"No, he has a… jutsu that allows him to… change bodies….every three years. He'll just change his body, and come back to Konoha. Unless…" the old man trailed off as he stared at Naruto. "I always wished we could finally have a real peace. Not the false one given through treaties. I wish no one had to die, no one had to suffer the loss of a loved one. I really wish something like that would happen."

"I have one last request Naruto. I want you to turn me into one of your puppets."

Naruto shook his head. "No way old man, you've done enough fighting for one life. It's time to let you kick back and relax for eternity."

Sarutobi smiled. "You always did have a way with words. That reminds me," he pulled out a scroll and handed it to Naruto. "This has all of your family possessions. It also has the deed to your mother's home country, which I won off of the Tsuchikage."

Naruto took the scroll and nodded his head in thanks.

The Sandaime smiled one last time and spoke his final words. "This next generation has a powerful Will of Fire. You more than any Naruto. Use it well, you blonde prankster." Naruto couldn't help but smile. "Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry I never told you this, but I always saw you as my own grandson."

And with that, he faded away, never to be heard from again.

(Scene Change)

Naruto appeared on the top of the Hokage tower, watching as the last of the wooden hands used to control the wall puppets was destroyed. Red chakra swirled around him in the shape of three fox tails. It was all their fault, all the invaders fault. If they hadn't done this, attacked _his_ village, the old man would still be alive now. With that in mind, he formed his favorite hand seal and thousands of puffs filled the air as an equal number of clones appeared. Chakra strings flowed from his back like millions of tiny blue snakes, picking up weapons and debris.

The clones and the chakra strings quickly began to devastate the enemy forces, as the bandit puppets were resurrected and began to attack ruthlessly. From atop the Hokage tower, Naruto's hands flew as he controlled his human puppets. His massive puppet show of destruction made every ninja, from Konoha or not, cower in fear as they tried as hard as possible to hide and survive the onslaught. Naruto's eyes glowed red as thoughts of the now dead Sandaime flew rapidly through his head. Each of the puppets took on a red hue around them as the chakra of the fox raced down the strings, forming a shield around the puppets.

Sasori stood atop the Hokage monument, watching the horrific display of power from the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. It had been years now since Sasori had felt any form of emotion, but this… It was like drowning in an ocean of boiling blood, which pressed down on him like the foot of a giant. It was the emotion he wanted more than anything to rid himself of when he became a living human puppet.

Fear.

Naruto's anger was somehow increasing the gravity around the village, causing the world to become a hazy blur of black, grey, red and brown. Screams of enemy ninja combined with the clashing of metal and the splash of blood on the ground accompanied by the puff of a dispersing clone or the shattering of a puppet filled the village air like a sadistic orchestra. From his own personal dimension, the Shinigami stared at the scene with evil glee. As more and more souls crossed over, he felt his smile grew more and more.

Around him were the souls of six Kages, derived of the four Hokage, the Yondaime Mizukage, and the Sandaime Kazekage. The four Hokages, three of them here only temporarily, screamed at each other. The Shinigami sighed before the ground around each of them lit up with the black fire of Amaterasu.

"**Would you fools please shut the hell up? What are you fighting about anyways?**" the deity asked, his anger flaring.

The Sandaime answered for the group. "They seem to think I have made a mistake by asking Naruto to create a world of peace."

"You have!" the Yondaime yelled back. "Look at him Sarutobi! He's my own son, and I fear him even in death!"

"Partial death." The Shodaime pointed out.

"Whatever! My point is, look at him. He'll launch the continent into a world war to achieve peace!"

"Minato, world war could be the only possible answer." The Nidaime answered. "Iwa, Kiri, and Kuma will not back down. Suna may, seeing as how your son's companion is the son of the Kazekage, and thus they must or be destroyed by the boy's demon, or at least the Kazekage will to be closer to the boy, but the other major and minor villages will not agree to a simple treaty, and even if they do, every treaty is broken every two decades or so. This is the best chance of peace."

"The boy is quite powerful." Comment Yagura. "Between his puppets and the Kyuubi, as well as his two companions, he may very well be able to do it. After my death, Kiri will be launched into the civil war the fear of my power has been holding back for years. Iwa and Kuma now know he is your son. They will both wish to mobilize against him. Suna now knows what they could have had, and will demand the Shukaku Jinchuuriki, or they will launch an attack. The major villages will attack, and subsequently weaken themselves, giving the smaller villages the opening to attack and destroy the major villages. I agree with the Nidaime Hokage. War will eventually equal peace."

The Kazekage however shook his head. "I agree with Minato. War is an awful thing. It corrupted me and I suffered the price. The boy should give up or find a more diplomatic way to do things."

The Shodaime nodded. "Look at what happened between Madara and myself. Because of our fighting, the war between families, we eventually found peace, yes, but so many lives were lost in that war, as well as the others, that it just wouldn't be worth it."

The six Kages split up, each going to one side, glaring at the other three Kages on the opposite side. The Shinigami cleared his throat.

"**May I add my two cents?**" the six Kages turned and stare at him. "**I know all about peace and war. They are a tandem that go hand in hand. Peace is bought with blood sweat, tears, and corpses. War is the key to peace. Besides, all those souls arriving with strengthen my hold in the face of the other gods.**" He smiled evilly, before turning back to the portal.

(Scene Change)

_There!_

Hanabi shot through the village, dodging through the crowd of corpses and still living enemy ninja, going to the Hokage Tower. She jumped onto a roof top, before focusing chakra to her feet and jumping across six more, before repeating the process thirty more times. She was two blocks away from the tower when the crashing weight fell on her, forcing the air from her lunges. She was use to this feeling, after living with Naruto so long. No one had the guts to tell him, but he released similar killing intent, of course a lot more diluted, out when he slept. When he woke in a cold sweat once, she ran to him to find out what was wrong, and he told her 'dreams of being beaten by the villagers'. So it wasn't as bad on her, which had been useful in the battle they had just fought.

But this was ten times as bad, to the point that every Jounin that had tried to reach the tower and kill him had been pushed to the floor and killed. As she slowly jumped from roof to roof, something began to slither around the tower. It was a massive snake body of red chakra, curling down to the bottom, before circling back up to the top. But instead of a reptilian head, a massive fox head appeared behind Naruto. With an increase of chakra to her legs, Hanabi began to move quicker, jumping three roofs at a time. She saw the intent in the fox's eyes.

'_Eat him, kill him, and be free of my prison' _they said to anyone watching. She reached the last roof top and focused half of her remaining reserves to her legs before jumped straight to the third level. She formed a thick chakra barrier around him, increasing the stress on her coils, but it pushed the red chakra away as she ran up the tower wall. As she reached the top, she was shocked to see that Naruto was no longer in control of his body.

The red chakra engulfed him completely, a massive cloud of the stuff surrounding him. The snake body was formed from this cloud. Using her Byakugan, for merely an instant, since the chakra was so bright it almost blinded her, she saw it was what a Bijuu would call three, almost four tails. She had been warned by Naruto what each tail would do. And she knew that if he reached four tails, they were all doomed. Naruto's teeth were all sharp looking fangs, and his eyes, including the whites, were a bright red, shooting off beams of blood colored light. But that wasn't the real problem.

The problem was that the fox was about to lung!

Hanabi shot forward first though, wrapping her arms protectively around Naruto. She lifted him in the air and began to spin, letting the thick chakra pour out from her. A Rotation formed around her, stopping most of the charka from getting in, but with Naruto shrouded in it, she was forced to touch the youki, and it burned to the touch. To the point that she could feel her skin bubbling.

"Naruto!" she yelled as the chakra began to falter. "Listen to me Naruto! You have to wake up! The fox is going to kill you!" but the rotation soon took its toll and faded away. She felt her skin bubbling in agony, watched in terror as he was thrown away from her, and her heart and stomach twisted in horror as the fox prepared to lung. She moved forward, to his still form, right as the fox lunged.

Both of them flew towards the blonde, one with worry in their eye, the other with sadistic glee, and both with determination in them. The world slowed as they grew within a few feet. The fox had started second, but his speed was impressive, and he was opening his jaws as Hanabi began her plan. With a roar of pain and determination, Hanabi slammed her chakra enhanced knee…

Into Naruto's crotch.

The blonde boy awoke to a sudden pain between his legs, and his puppets around the city clattered to the ground, as the massive red fox cursed. His chakra fangs had skinned Naruto's arm, and Hanabi had ruined his plan to escape. Now he would have to serve this child until someone extracted him from the blonde.

Naruto tumbled to the ground, holding his crotch in pain, as the last thirteen surviving enemies were rounded up and took to ANBU holding cells. The dead were rounded up, the wounded, including Naruto, taken to the hospital, and the village began the long, tedious journey to recuperate itself.

(One Week Later)

Naruto walked, carefully, out of the hospital, followed by Kakashi, Lee, Jiraiya, Hanabi, Hinata, Neji, Might Guy, Sakura, Sasuke, Gaara, and Haku, as well as several other they didn't know. The group all dressed in black clothing, marched down the street solemnly and quietly. They were headed to the funeral of the Sandaime Hokage. After that, Naruto would be going to the ANBU head quarters to get his sister. Then he had a crucial part of his plan to complete.

Naruto stopped, staring up at the mostly cloudy sky. He could tell by looked at them that they would not have enough moisture for rain so he turned to Haku. "Do you think you could make it rain Haku? The Sandaime was a great man, and many people will be crying at his funeral. Why not the sky to?"

People had stopped to stare at Naruto in surprise as they heard the pain in his voice. No one had ever heard the boy talk in such a way. It showed how much the blonde really cared for the Sandaime.

Haku nodded and began to manipulate the clouds as they walked. As each of them lined up at the Sandaime's funeral, Haku finished manipulating the clouds as the priest came out to speak. The rain began to fall, a cold stinging rain that matched the occasion perfectly. At the end of the funeral, every one walked up to the casket, said a few words, and set the flower down. Naruto walked up and pulled out a flower made of purple crystal. Purple was one of the Sandaime's favorite colors, and Naruto didn't want the flower to simply die, or be crushed by the dirt, so he made an eternal flower, which bonded and spread over the casket, protecting it from harm.

"Would anyone else like to say a few words about Sarutobi?"

Many hands were raised, but Naruto didn't raise his. Instead, he walked up to the podium and the priest moved aside for him. Naruto put his hand on either side of the podium, staring out at the crowd as memories flood over him. Every few seconds, a tear would flow down his cheek, and it began to increase in pace, until the tears coursed down his face non-stop, forming with the rain.

"People of Konoha." He spoke, his voice low, yet loud enough for all to hear. "I come before you today as a humble Genin, much as I did last week. However, last week, I wanted to prove myself, and become a Chuunin, but now…" he trailed off for a moment. Every one watched Naruto silently as he raised his eyes, eyes that had known pain, suffering, and sorrow, but had never been affected like this. "Today, I just want to remember. I want to remember every conversation, every fun filled moment, every fight, every disagreement, every meal he bought for me, every joke he told me. I want to remember it all. But that only brings tears to my eyes. Which he wouldn't have wanted. Hiruzen Sarutobi was an incredible man, powerful, smart, always in a good mood unless I left him at the ramen stand with a stack of empty dishes to pay for."

The tension of the crowd lifted at the small joke, all of them having seen Naruto running away from a horde of ninja led by the Hokage, who was flailing an empty wallet in the air like a madman, at least once.

"Not to say he wouldn't want us to grieve for him. But he would want us to remember that we defeated the enemy, and that we have survived. That Konoha has survived. He told me, 'don't let the Will of Fire burn out Naruto, don't ever let it burn out' before he died. And I won't let it die. I will make sure the bastard who killed the greatest man I have every met will pay for this!" he yelled, slamming his fist on the podium, cracking it. "I swear on my soul I will make Orochimaru twist and turn like the snake he is!" he slammed his fists on the podium again, cracking it more, as the crowd began to mumble among themselves.

"I SWEAR TO EVERY GOD IN EXISTANCE, OROCHIMARU WILL DIE BY MY HANDS FOR THE DEATH OF HIRUZEN SARUTOBI, THE SANDAIME HOKAGE OF KONOHA! AND I WILL MAKE ALL FEAR THE NAME NARUTO UZUMAKI-NAMIKAZE, THE KILLERS OF THE SNAKE SANNIN!" he slammed his fists into the podium again, finally smashing it to splinters. The crowd roared in agreement as Naruto caught his breath. He turned to the coffin of the Sandaime and stood before it. Then he turned to the crowd one last time. "Remember, however, ladies and gentlemen, civilian and ninja, all that the Sandaime has done for us. Let us pay one last respect to him for it."

Naruto moved back to his place at the front of the crowd. He dropped to his knees and then bowed until his forehead was pressed to the wet grass. The entire village quickly followed the example, and soon, every head was bowed on the ground. In a building close by, the Raikage, Tsuchikage, and the Kazekage stared.

"He's quite an amazing kid." The Kazekage said. The two other Kages nodded as well. "After that display of power… I wouldn't be surprised if he was the next Hokage."

"You're kidding me." Onoki said. "He's powerful, but what about the Sannin, Copy-cat Kakashi, Hiashi Hyuuga, among others?"

The Kazekage shrugged before they turned back to the ceremony. The crowd was following the six men carrying the casket to the grave. They watched as the casket was lowered into the grave and the dirt was pushed back in. Then everyone, including the Kages, gasped as the full effects of the crystal rose kicked in. A large flower made of purple crystal rose up from the ground, sharp thorns sprouting from the stem. The thing was as large as a full grown man. Bigger actually.

The procession separated, going home to mourn in private.

(Scene Change)

Two ANBU were thrown into the head quarters, taking the door with them. Every ninja within stared as Naruto Uzumaki_-Namikaze_, apparently, walked into the building, a folder held in his hand, and a determined look on his face. The ANBU captain stood up a little straighter from the pool table he was currently at. "How may we help you?" he asked, subtly reaching for a kunai in his pants pocket.

Naruto walked over to him and threw the folder on the pool table. The captain picked it up, read the name on the page, stared at Naruto in shock, and turned, leading to the door that led to the holding cells. A few minutes later, Naruto and Tayuya walked out of the ANBU headquarters.

"Sir," a random ANBU asked, "what did that folder say that was so important you let the prisoner go?"

The captain stared at all of the ANBU leaning in a slight bit to hear better.

"It said she was the daughter of the Yondaime, and his sister."

(Scene Change)

The civilian council members of Konoha, as well as the Sandaime's former teammates and Danzo, all sat around the council table, debating who would be the next Hokage. Jiraiya and Tsunade were there as well, but not to listen. The need for their presences would soon be revealed to the council.

The door of the council room was kicked down and sent spiraling throw the air and out of the window. Naruto and Tayuya appeared, both garbed in black outfits with a blood red whirlpool with a leaf insignia in the center of it stitched on their backs.

"Mr. Uzumaki, how may we help you?" Danzo asked. He and everyone in the room hated Naruto, but they couldn't do anything about it now that he had proven his strength as well as won over the village with his speech earlier that day.

"It has come to my attention…" he told them slowly, drawing their attention so they wouldn't notice Tayuya, Tsunade, and Jiraiya creeping into the corners of the room, "that my father asked for me to be seen as a hero. And his order was ignored. I have also been informed that the council is going to appoint a figurehead Hokage who will follow all of your orders. One who will cause nothing but hatred and panic in this village, bringing on a civil war."

"Mr. Uzumaki that will not happen in Konoha. We are not barbarians like the ninja in Kiri." Danzo said. Naruto shook his head.

"I'm afraid it must." He explained as a Shadow Clone appeared, filling the final corner. "Because for me to begin to create peace, I need council members who are trustworthy, not back stabbing fools who care only for themselves." The two Sannin, and the two Namikaze flashed through the same set of hand seals, forming a purple barrier around the room. "You see the Hokage ordered me to create a world of peace. And I can't do unless all of the Shinobi villages are united into one. And I need to kill you fools so I can achieve that goal."

(Forty Minutes Later)

Naruto dropped to the ground, panting. He had just barely gotten to the barrier's wall, where Jiraiya and Tayuya had formed a barrier around him to protect himself from the seal on Danzo that sucked everything near it into his corpse. He had the three ninja and his clone dropped the jutsu and collected the three bodies of worth; the third's old teammates and Danzo. He didn't want them for puppets, but rather for the information they held. By using certain techniques and seals, a puppet master could figure out every jutsu a ninja knew, as long it didn't require actual seals, in which case the puppet's knowledge was useless.

But Naruto had luckily found a way around that. Using one of his Uchiha puppets, he had copied several Yamanaka clan techniques, and studied the effects. Then he had combined them with several advanced seals Jiraiya had given him and found out how to transfer all of the person's knowledge in the same way. And now that the council was finished, Naruto could begin his rule.

Other than the four people in the room, no one knew the council dead. They had to keep it that way. So Naruto messed with the sockets in the room, making them incomplete circuits permanently, and lit a few candles that cast shadows around the room, confusing any who came within. Then he unsealed some spare security puppets and set them up, giving them the appearance of the council members. Then the four ninja leapt away to the compound.

(Scene Change)

Fugaku Uchiha stared at the village around him from the top of the Uchiha manor, at the demolished buildings, the ninja running around building things up. Soon this would be his, all his, and the prospect made him smile. With it being only two days after the Sandaime's death, no one would expect them to attack the council, kill them, and take over. And he had three very powerful warriors at his disposal. Itachi Uchiha, Mei Terumi, and Fuubi Terumi.

At that instant, all three appeared around him. Itachi wore his gray ANBU armor, with two swords crossed on his back. He was dressed for extreme battle. Sasuke had already made sure the civilians were out of the way by going to each house and giving out 'free cookies his mother had made for the household'. The cookies actually had a sleeping potion in them, and all of the civilians were peacefully asleep somewhere.

His plan was to meet Naruto at the Hokage's office in half an hour, where he would unseal his puppets and distract the Uchiha, while Itachi would kill them. Naruto would then do Itachi and Sasuke a favor. All of the civilians were civilians for one reason: they were all sterile. It was a major drawback to the Sharingan, which made three in five Uchiha children sterile, thus limiting the clan. So Naruto would take the corpses and store their organs, which included the seed and eggs. With the help of the two loyal Sannin, he would find a way to remove the drawback. And since most of the sex slaves they had freed, now numbering in the low thousands thanks to annihilating the bandit camps, who were living in Wave for the moment, didn't have families, they would be more than willing to take the seed of an extinct clan and revive it for Naruto, thus giving them a family with the children and the women who did the same.

The only complication would be the Terumi twins.

Mei was redheaded with large breasts, which Itachi couldn't help but notice. She wore a set of dark blue armor, which only served to show off her curves to Itachi, and was an incredible ninja who held two bloodlines, the Lava and Boil limit, which created the molten magma and steam, which could be poisoned. Unfortunately, she was too young for him, he realized, being nineteen at the moment.

Fuubi was her younger brother. He had spiky red hair, and a sharp, almost regal looking face. His eyes were a dark green, and he wore armor similar to his sister. However, where Mei didn't use weapons, instead opting to use her Kekkei Genkai, Fuubi was covered in storage scrolls riddled with weapons. He held the two Kekkei Genkai as well, but he didn't use them.

He knew Naruto would want one of them for a puppet. Most likely Mei, but he would kill Fuubi first since he was the more dangerous threat.

"Are the troops getting ready?" Fugaku asked them, turning to stare at the Kage tower.

"Almost father. Another hour and we will be ready to move out." Itachi reported, plastering a fake smile on his face. Fugaku didn't bother to try to see past it, instead turning back to the tower.

"Good Itachi. Go back to whatever it was you were doing." Itachi bowed and disappeared. He traveled through the village until he arrived at the tower, making sure to go in the way opposite the Uchiha compound so his father wouldn't see him.

"Ah, and now we're all here." Naruto said as he opened the door. Within were the Kazekage, Lady Chiyo, Gaara, and Haku.

He turned to the Kazekage and Chiyo. "A Kage would strike fear into the hearts of the Uchiha and they would be easier to defeat. And having Lady Chiyo help conduct the show with me would help."

The two ninja nodded as Naruto opened up a scroll and in a blast of smoke, an overly large wooden container appeared. He opened up the two polished oak doors, revealing a set of armor for puppeteers. It had several puppet arms sticking out of it, with several hidden mechanisms. However, it was too small for Naruto.

"Lady Chiyo, in thanks for teaching me the advance forms of puppetry, I have built you this." He said, pulling piece out. Chiyo tried the armor on, and with a few solid snaps, she felt like she was wearing a slightly heavier layer of clothing. She nodded and smiled, pulling out her three storage scrolls. Naruto stared at them and shook his head. "You need more puppets. This is a bandit puppet for each free finger." He said, handing her another scroll. She slid it into her pocket and began to tinker with the armor, getting use to it.

"And now comes the hard part." Naruto said, sighing and unsealing his now repaired storage scrolls.

(Scene Change)

Fugaku had just finished the speech he had prepared for the two-hundred-thirty-seven active or retired shinobi that had turned out when the massive gate opened up behind him. Itachi stood in the doorway, his best friend Shisui Uchiha's corpse held in his hand. A tear of blood had dried up on his face, where he had activated the Mangekyou Sharingan. The sight of the legendary Dojutsu alone scared several of the Uchiha. Then the distraction began.

Naruto swung his right hand into the air, sending Wind chakra coursing over the chakra strings and into Genocide's wings, lifting the puppet off the ground. With a massive blast of fire, a smoking ditch was carved from the ground, snaking towards the gathering of Uchiha. Hundreds of more puppets began to appear, levitating around the edges of the compound.

Naruto stood up on the top of the gate, the imposing figure of the Kazekage standing next to him. Both of them looked menacingly evil. Two people saw Naruto, however, and started to attack. This was the two Terumi. As they started to jump towards him, Naruto opened the storage seals on the edge of the armor, and several small black snake puppets crept out. One crept up over his head and got in front of his face, two more crawled over his shoulder, and the last two wrapped around either of his sides. Each of the snake's mouth opened and fired a concentrated stream of red mist, which slammed into the ground, melting it like acid, before racing towards the two Terumi.

As the puppets danced in the air, beginning to bristle with hidden weapons, Itachi rushed forward, his two swords flashing, into the crowd of stunned Uchiha. He seemed to dance as he cut and sliced, never hacking, making sure to make an instant death so Naruto could turn them into mere spy puppets, something that satisfied Itachi greatly, seeing his 'great and noble clan' fall to the bottom of Naruto's roster, below even the sentry puppets.

Some fought back, and it made it difficult for Itachi to kill them. Until Naruto yelled out, "I only need the genetic material. Screw how you kill them." And Itachi began fighting back for real. The Uchiha were quickly overwhelmed by Itachi, who combined power and grace together in a powerful combo. Several tried to run, only to be hit the flying puppets. A few did get past, racing to leave the village, only to have traps capture them.

Finally, after ninety minutes of fighting, it came down to the two Terumi and Fugaku. Itachi took Fugaku, while the two Terumi focused on Naruto. Mei started out by firing a blast of lava at him, but he dodged out of the way. However, Fuubi jammed a spear into the ground and somehow made it extend outwards underground and nearly impale Naruto. He ducked under a cloud of steam bullets and felt a solid crack as Fuubi slammed a hammer into his chest, breaking three ribs. He hissed as Kyuubi's chakra healed them. He had used too much of the chakra in the invasion and the exams and now he was paying the price for it.

The ground beneath him began to heat up and he jumped into the air just in time to dodge the puddle of lava that formed. Fuubi appeared, this time with a giant battle ax. Naruto rolled to the side, but Fuubi managed to cut him down the left leg, giving him a limp and spilling blood. He cringed as the youki burned through his veins like molten lead. The youki he had used earlier in the week still hurt his coils. He needed to recuperate. Only his backup reserves saved him thus far. But this man was instantly becoming a large problem.

Naruto jumped backwards, dodging a simultaneous attack from the twins. He would need to end this quickly, and chakra was no obstacle. Naruto ripped off his shirt, revealing his muscled chest. Mei seemed to falter for a moment as blood started to trick down from her nose before regaining her composure. Naruto tapped a storage seal on his left side and pulled out a storage scroll. He unrolled it revealing three kanji for One, Two, and Four.

In three blasts of smoke, the Hokage puppets appeared, shocking the two mist-nin. The puppets were leaning forward, slack, and Naruto instinctively started to extend his chakra strings to them. However, as the strings got halfway to their destination, the puppets straightened up of their own, and began to look around in confusion!

"So this is Sarutobi's surprise." The Shodaime said, looking around in interest.

"Well, he said it would be peculiar and indeed it is." The Nidaime said.

The Yondaime nodded. "Things should get quite interesting for us now."

The Shodaime snorted. "You're just glad to not be sealed in the Shinigami's large intestine anymore."

"THERE WAS NO MORE ROOM IN THE STOMACH YOU STUPID TWIG USER!" the blonde yelled back.

"YOU WANNA GO YOU SPIKY HAIRED DAFFODIL? I'LL KICK YOUR ASS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!" the Shodaime yelled. Both of them glared at each other, until the Nidaime poked each of them with his Raijin, sending electricity coursing through them.

"What kind of trick is this?" Naruto demanded. The Kages turned to him and smiled evilly.

"Didn't the old man tell you?" the Nidaime explained. "Sarutobi had our souls sealed into our bodies, and made the seal so weak we all had control over our bodies."

Naruto stared at the Kages in shock before pumping chakra into the scroll they had come from and forcing them to return within. He would deal with that later. But until then, he had plenty of new snake puppets to try out, thanks to the arm of Orochimaru. Naruto had used all of the blood in the arm to summon snakes of all sizes, killing them and putting them away for later. Now he had a small army of them, ready for use. And they were all sealed away in a scroll within the armor in his back.

He reached his hands backwards to his side, a few inches from his hips, and a scroll fired out of the storage seal on the armor from both sides. He unrolled them and a smile spread over his face as hundreds of puppets poured out of the single seal within each. He pulled on his backup reserves and a clone appeared for each snake, jumping within it and taking control.

Naruto leaned against the wall and caught his breath as the snakes spun around the two ninja, confusing them, while he caught his breath. Finally, a large white scaled snake rose upwards and let loose a torrent of flames. The two ninja both used a jutsu that caused them to sink into the ground and both resurfaced on either side of Naruto, a sword in Fuubi's hand, a Lava Style jutsu firing from Mei's hands. Naruto's eyes widened as the two attacks rushed to kill him.

A wall of ice shot up, blocking out the lava. A wave of sand grabbed onto the sword and yanked it away. "Man, don't you know anything Naruto?" Gaara asked as he and Haku dropped to the ground by him. "You can't do everything by yourself. You need help."

"And we'll always be here to help you." Haku finished for him. Fuubi and Mei jumped away from the blonde and his companions before regrouping.

"Just because you have backup doesn't mean you win." Fuubi hissed at them. Naruto tilted his head to the side.

"Trust me Fuubi of the Terumi clan. Yes it does. We are Team Hokage, and we will kill you and be done with this." That was all the warning they got.

Spikes of ice and sand shot from every direction, trying to impale them as flames and electricity danced around them. Waves of sand and water washed around them, trying to swallow them. Weapons fired up from the ground as beasts fell from the sky to attack. It was all the twins could do to keep from being killed. The teamwork between these three was amazing really, the way each attack covered the others weakness while playing upon their strengths.

Naruto dashed through a wall of ice and stabbed his sword up into Terumi's stomachs. His blades moved through the air, slicing into the physically and mentally exhausted ninjas. They fell back, twitching from the poison lining the blades.

"You two are lucky. The poison is a few days old, so it won't kill, but you're in for a painful night." He said as he painted immobilizing seals on both of them. He set them aside so they wouldn't get hurt. Later he would decide if he wanted to kill them or not. They would make great servants if he could turn them.

He watched as Itachi battled with his father. As they moved in and out of each other's attacks, Itachi over-extended himself and Fugaku drove his blade up into Itachi's stomach. The Uchiha heir coughed up blood into Fugaku's face, momentarily blinding the elder Uchiha. Itachi backed away off of the blade, gasping and staggering as he did. Fugaku wiped the blood from his face and rushed Itachi. "You shall die you traitorous bastard!"

Fugaku grabbed his blade as he ran forward and lunged, putting on a blast of chakra to increase his speed and the blade's cutting ability.

_CLANG!_

The sound of metal meeting metal resounded throughout the yard of the Uchiha complex. All eyes widened as a man dressed in a black cloak with red clouds, and a mask with a flame-like pattern on it appeared in front of Fugaku, holding a large fan with the Uchiha symbol on it.

"H-h-how are you alive? You should have died years ago!" Fugaku yelled. The man grunted and knocked Fugaku back.

"You foolish man." The figure said. He brought his fan up above his head with one arm as it began to glow with a black aura. "Mangekyou Sharingan Forbidden Technique: Black Winds of the Shinigami!" the man yelled before he began to swing his arm. He did it so quickly, so effortlessly, even though his arm seemed to blur into nothingness as it moved. A searing cold wind flew into the yard, making even Haku shiver. Millions of tiny wind blades surrounded Fugaku, but each of them was black as midnight. The man sheathed his fan and snapped.

Every blade converged on Fugaku, slicing him to pieces. People with a weaker stomach began to throw up as the arteries, organs, bones, and blood began to fall apart from each other. But the blades weren't done yet. They continued the onslaught, slicing into the tiny pieces until what remained was almost impossible to tell as human. Then the man snapped again, and all the blades formed a square that fell onto the pieces and liquefied them.

The ninja within the yard, including Naruto and the Kazekage, bent over and puked. The man went over to the body of Itachi and began to pick him up, but the Water and Sand Dragon puppets appeared and slashed at the man with claws and sword, sending him back.

"Stay away from him whoever you are." Naruto ordered, his chakra strings sticking out of the armor. The two dragons moved into a stance that allowed for either attack or defense at a moment's notice. They all stared in shock as the ninja shot forward, slamming his fists into the puppets and sending them flying away. He leaned down and began to heal Itachi, who pushed himself up.

"T-t-teacher, what are you doing here?"

"Do you think I wouldn't want to witness the death of these fools?" he asked before pulling Itachi to his feet. Itachi waved the puppets away, and Naruto drew them over to himself.

"Itachi, who is this man?" Naruto asked, prepared to summon every puppet in his possession if this person proved to be a threat.

"This…" Itachi stared at the man, as if asking for permission. The man however shook his head and disappeared in a blast of smoke. "He is an old family friend, I'll put it that way."

(End)


End file.
